Brave New World
by Myevltwin
Summary: I don't know how we got here, but I don't care. Revenge brought us here, but peace may see him out. As for me, well, I don't really care.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

I suppose I should state that I will be using OC's for this story. For what stories I've seen of Naruto entering this world, he's always with team RWBY. Not gonna lie, I like the idea of doing that, but it's also something that I hate. I have mixed feelings about that and while the idea of using three other OC's is generally kind of frowned upon because they're author created characters, in this case, I kind of want to do it. So without further delay, here is the first chapter for what I hope will be a fic you guys want me to continue.

Prologue

The steady beeping of the monitor was enough to make him go crazy, but he couldn't. He was too hurt to do anything. Too broken to really move. All of his life choices. All of his fears, his dreams, his desires… all of it was gone. He was lost. He had no more purpose in life. What was the point in it all now if he was here and not there?

"We found him like this."

Weakly he turned to the voice. A man with gray hair stood solemnly in the door. The gentle tap of his cane on the ground as he walked barely made a noise in the room. There was another; a woman with blond hair and a purple cape. She looked sad as she gazed at the boy in the bed.

"I don't know what happened, but I think I know enough." The man walked right beside him and glanced back at the boy in the bed. He'd be lucky to ever awaken again. His injuries were that severe. The idiot always woke up from everything. Why wasn't he waking up now? "You two fought. He lost. You won. I don't know who was right or who was wrong, but judging by your actions, I'm assuming you feel guilt about something. Was he close to you?"

He nodded softly. His rough shell that he had made for himself was broken. He didn't want it anymore. Not now. Probably not ever again. Power was not worth this pain. "He was on my team." His voice was horsed as he tried to speak. It was a funny thing to him. He hadn't spoken since he got here… wherever here was. He didn't cry. His tears had long since dried up. He couldn't remember crying since the night his family was murdered and his brother turned traitor. He was sure that when reality hit him after he awoke in the hospital that day, those were the last tears he ever shed. "The dunce was someone I considered a brother. Well… he considered me his brother. I didn't. I saw him as an obstacle that needed to be removed. Unwanted feelings and baggage. I thought if I simply pushed people away, I would never have to feel pain again. But I wanted power. And I learned a dark truth. To attain more power I had to do something terrible. I was going to… but… I realized that the kind of power I was trying to attain wasn't worth it."

The man tapped his cane softly as he walked around to the other side of the bed.

"It should be me in that bed. Not him."

"Why?"

For the first time in a while, Sasuke looked up at the man fully. A price to pay for their fight was his left eye. He had bandages over it. Losing it was probably for the best. They both lost something if he was gauging his friend right. He wasn't up yet. That meant he probably lost it. Whatever that power was he had. "He's been in that bed for three days. I've seen him suffer worse and get up in hours. I fought to kill him, just like how everyone else does for where we're from. You either live or you die. He's been through worse and yet, here is not getting up. I should be in that bed, not him."

"I'm sure your friend will be fine. Some of the best doctors are looking over him right now. He'll be back on his feet before you know it." Sasuke doubted the man. If he wasn't on his feet yet, he wasn't getting up any time soon. Seeing his distraught, he changed tactics. "Do you believe that what you did was wrong?" Sasuke suddenly became alert. He wasn't bound by their magic anymore. They had released him the moment this man entered. The woman had been less than pleased when the choice was made and even less happy when they came here to see the other one. "You are not wrong to want to grab power. It is the thing that drives all of humanity."

"I didn't want power to become strong to protect people. I wanted power to kill someone that wronged me." The woman took a deep breath. "It's a different world. Different rules…" He could still feel her gaze on the back of his head. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that in the end his power would be used to protect people. He told himself that no matter the cost, once all of his skeletons were laid to rest, his power would be used to protect the people close to him. He was going to go to Orochimaru and gain power from him so that he could go and kill his brother. That was his goal. After that… he didn't have anything else. He'd try and return to Konoha, make a life, settle down, have kids, and revive the Uchiha clan. But now those dreams were just that; dreams.

"People use power however they want and justify their actions by telling themselves it's for the better," the man continued, his eyes returned to the face of the boy in the bed. "People believe that power will free them of their weakness, make them stronger, keep them alive longer and stop others from trying to take what's precious to them. But sadly, that isn't the case. People will always want what others have and they'll use any means to justify their actions. Having power doesn't make you right. Being powerless doesn't make you wrong. It is a cycle that all hate and want to break, but still follow through with it."

Sasuke closed his eye. Kakashi's words about revenge came to mind. He was right; he ended up suffering more in the long run than he thought he would.

"I know that I'll probably never understand why you did what you did. But perhaps I don't have to." He pulled out a small object. Sasuke's eye flickered to it and for a moment he saw a face on the clear thing. Faces and people appeared and disappeared on it like magic. He kept dragging his finger along it until he came to an image. Sasuke recognized it. It was himself fighting his friend that now lay in the hospital bed: Naruto Uzumaki. They fought through the city streets in a berserker furry. Sasuke didn't let up. Naruto grew tired. Sasuke moved in and shoved an arm through his shoulder and then something snapped in him. The images faded as the man put the device away. "Perhaps I'm wrong in assuming that I can trust you. I highly doubt that you meant what you did now that I see you. I highly doubt he meant what he did. From the way you speak, you make it sound like you were the one who did the wrong doing here."

"I left our village for power. He was sent to retrieve me. I was so furious with him. I wanted revenge for my family. To attain more power for my eyes, I had to kill him. But I couldn't do it. I just…" Sasuke shut his eye and suddenly he remembered why he couldn't do it. _I never want to lose someone precious to me again._ A tear of blood trailed down his cheek. The man made a noise. Sasuke sighed and rubbed the blood away. "I lost so many people one day that I snapped. I wanted to fight him because the man I wanted to kill didn't look at me the same way he looked at him. He wanted him for something. Said he was special. The man I wanted to kill, the man I trained my whole life to destroy, was not interested in me and only this idiot of a person that was on my team. I hated him for that."

"So it was jealousy?"

"That man was my brother. Flesh and blood… and the same man that killed our clan. He murdered them all and did it for power. He left me alive because he wanted me to become stronger so we could fight and see which of us was stronger. I hated him for it. I still hate him!" Sasuke could feel the burning power of the Curse Seal on his shoulder. It was strong and it burned. He couldn't feel Orochimaru's influence anymore. There was no driving voice calling him back to the Otogakure anymore. He couldn't hear anything but his own inner demons mocking him for his loss.

"I know this is difficult for you." The man walked around the bed again and put a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. He glanced at him and his eye turned red with the Sharingan forming. The man smiled at him. Sasuke could see no evil in him. "I'll make you a deal. We'll keep your friend safe and help him make a full recovery. In exchange, you come to my school and receive training on fighting monsters. I know you're already skilled enough in combat, and the people might be terrified of you for what you did, but I think you can use your power for good and protect our Nation." Sasuke looked back at Naruto. "I can't speak for your friend. I don't know how close you were. But what would he do?"

Sasuke snorted and could see it clearly. "That idiot would jump at the chance to help others. If he was up and I was in that bed, he'd be smacking me awake right now or trying to find a way to get home to drag me back."

"I can sweep all of this under the rug. Make it so that this never happened if you promise to join my academy." He put his hand out. Sasuke stared at it for a moment and then looked back at Naruto as he slept soundly in the bed. He closed his one eye and sighed before taking his hand and shaking it. "Understand that this will be no easy task. But I have faith that you will help protect our kingdom and its people."

"What about trying to find a way for us to go home?" As soon as Sasuke said those words, he regretted it. What was the point in going back? He'd be hated. No one would care about him and the few friends he had would demand justice for his actions. The Curse Seal would act up again and he would most likely fall into Orochimaru's thrall. Here, he wouldn't be known. He could start over. How many people actually got a chance to start over like this? A whole new world. A whole new life! But then, when Naruto woke up, he'd fight his way through Hell and back to get home. A promise was a promise to him.

"I'm afraid you're asking for a lot there, dear boy." The man sounded sad by his own words. "I, too, would like to see you home as well. Not because of the damage you did or the panic that it caused, but because I know this isn't your world. This isn't your life, but I would hope that you would treat it as such for the time being." Sasuke looked at Naruto one last time and then put him out of his mind. Shinobi don't cry and they don't feel anything. They kill, complete their mission, and move on. "My name is Professor Ozpin. I'm the Headmaster at Beacon Academy. A new group of students will be joining us in a few months. That should give you plenty of time to adapt to our world and its culture. Don't you agree?"

Sasuke looked to the woman. She hadn't said a single word this entire time. "Where will I be staying?"

"At the dorms under heavy surveillance." Now she finally spoke. She dragged her fingers along the same kind of device that Ozpin was using earlier. "A room will be ready for you by the time we arrive. We can worry about your clothes later. We'll even find a job for you so you can make some cash to buy whatever you may need."

"We'll supply you a few things. Understand this, Sasuke. I'm taking a big risk in doing this. Don't let me down."

Sasuke nodded and looked out the door towards his freedom, his new life, and his future. "Will I be able to come see him?" Sasuke didn't dare look back. He'd want to stay some more if he did. Ozpin nodded and with a heavy sigh, Sasuke nodded. "You can count on me. I won't leave. I'm done running." Together they marched out the door and towards Sasuke's new future.

A/N

Short, probably not sweet, but the start of the series I've been working on. So I started DUST as a proof of concept and since it's an OC team that story had and this will one will have at least three confirmed OCs, I was hoping it'd be taken a little bit better. Hopefully, you're not going to drag this through the mud because Sasuke is the main person at start. Obviously Naruto is here and won't be around for a bit, but HE IS HERE! So this whole thing truly stems from a scene that I planned out towards the end of Volume 2 in the RWBY series with the Grimm attack. Literally this whole thing is planned around one whole scene that I just thought was cool in my head and I can't wait to get to it.

Sasuke might seem a tad bit Ocish here because there was always something weird about why he looked at Naruto the way he did after their Valley of the End fight. To me it was like he regretted what he did and was just playing the bad guy later on when they met him again because I like to think that he was playing a long game with Orochimaru. He wanted power, Orochimaru had power, so Sasuke naturally was like, "I'm a use you still, so I'm a take care of these guys right quick." Honestly, I might be giving Sasuke too much credit, but hey, it's a how I'm choosing to perceive it for this story. So I don't really have a pairing in mind but, I also kind of do have a pairing in mind. Obviously one main pairing is Jaune and Pyrrha because they are funny together and I like them. Any pairing I come up with for Sasuke and Naruto when he wakes up, cuz he will wake up, not even going to hide that, has to have a good reason for it. I'm not just going to slap Blake with Naruto or Sasuke because, she's a Ninja and their ninjas, so they make ninja love and it makes since. Not happening.


	2. Stormbringer!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

I suppose I should state that I will be using OC's for this story. For what stories I've seen of Naruto entering this world, he's always with team RWBY. Not gonna lie, I like the idea of doing that, but it's also something that I hate. I have mixed feelings about that and while the idea of using three other OC's is generally kind of frowned upon because they're author created characters, in this case, I kind of want to do it. So without further delay, here is the first chapter for what I hope will be a fic you guys want me to continue.

Chapter 1

Sasuke made sure to check himself in the mirror before he walked out the door for the start of the new day. It was his thing now to look at himself in the mirror each day and remind himself why he was here. What he was fighting for. What he was living here for. It got easier with each day that went by. If he ever felt himself slipping from his new routine he'd go visit Naruto in the hospital, hoping, praying that he'd wake up and yell at him, do something other than lay in a bed asleep, suffering in quiet bliss with his injuries. Ozpin told him that they had sedated him at start for his injuries and that when they took him off it, he just never woke up.

Ozpin and Glynda picked his brain clean of all the details the following morning once he was given some fresh clothes and came to terms with his situation for the time. Ozpin had been less than pleased to learn the circumstances of their fight and their arrival, but what was done was done. There was no going back and Ozpin simply moved forward. Sasuke could only give little pieces of information on Naruto to Ozpin, as he had little information on what the odd power was he had and why his brother would want him. Ozpin confessed to wanting more information, but given Sasuke's own limitations, he was more than willing to wait till Uzumaki was awake.

True to their word, Sasuke was given a room and supplies and would be attending their academy in the foreseeable future. And, true to their word, Sasuke was placed under heavy security. Glynda confessed to him that she caught him finding all the blind spots, to which he replied, "You want to monitor me, right? I'm just making sure you understand what I can do and where the weak points are for future prisoners," much to her displeasure. Ozpin might have appreciated it, but Sasuke wasn't sure. At the time he hadn't cared. Escape was the last thing on his mind.

With the blind spots fixed and the guard detail increased, Sasuke began to see that his guards weren't actual people meant to contain or watch him, but rather, listen to him. While it was hard to spot actual guards and people that simply wanted to listen to him, hear his story and know his life, Sasuke became convinced that his choice was mistake and made plans for escape one night. The guards left. He didn't question it. He bolted and went to the one place he felt safe. He returned to Naruto. Somehow, being around him made him feel better… He wanted to kill Naruto. Make the pain inside himself go away. But everytime he looked at him, the horror and the words that Naruto spoke to him stopped him.

" _I'm your friend! And I'm not going to let Orochimaru take you away!"_

Ozpin came through the door that night and confessed that he had known this was going to happen and offered him a solution to try and ease his broken heart and mind. It was what started this routine in the morning. He looked at himself in the mirror and practiced smiling. Sasuke had blown it off, but did it one day and then the next and then the next day and soon he felt as though it wasn't so bad to smile. There were many nights Sasuke spent with Ozpin, listening to the wise man and there were days that Ozpin did no talking and listened only to Sasuke. Ozpin wouldn't lie to Sasuke about anything. His actions that day had caused a massive uproar. The fighting had been grim, but no one was killed during the storm of power. Sasuke ended up getting a list of names from people that were hurt by his power. He visited them under disguise and listened to their words. They spoke of him harshly.

Accepting the truth of his past life, Sasuke finally began to move forward and was accepted fully by Ozpin and a man called Qrow. Sasuke didn't know what to think of the man. When Qrow came to Beacon it was clear that it was about Sasuke and wanting to know what was up. Sasuke was not impressed with the man and gave him no respect. Somehow the man seemed to respect that.

That was about three months ago. Today was the day that the new students would be coming to Beacon and he was told to go and find people to talk to. Ozpin warned him that the age different would be a problem. Sasuke didn't care and confessed that to him, age was just a number to show how long you lived and nothing else. Glynda snorted in disapproval. Ozpin chuckled, accepting his answer.

Checking himself over just one last time, he took a deep breath and tried to smile. He could hardly manage it today. Ozpin said that moving forward would be tough, but he was going to endure it. He threw away everything with his clan to change himself. He discarded his last name and clan symbol. The only thing he kept was the Sharingan and took that as his symbol, as if it would somehow make him a better person.

Dressed in dark gray pants, a white button up shirt with the top two buttons left undone, and a dress coat to match his pants, Sasuke checked his black eye patch and marched out the door. He fiddled with his leather bracelet, a gift from a woman named Coco. She took him shopping to get new clothes. She was a first year student at the time and their job had been the easiest one. The bunny girl, Velvet, clearly had no complaints about taking some random guy shopping. The other two seemed put off by the whole thing. Coco said that the bracelet, along with his rope necklace with a sideways cross maybe him seem rather dashing. And with his hair down and not in his usual style, she admitted that if he were older, she'd be into him. Sasuke had blown the entire statement off, much to her pleasure.

His boots didn't make a sound as he marched through the empty busy halls. He spied Coco talking with someone and hastily avoided her. Instead of heading to the one group of people he knew, he marched straight to the center of the court yard where the students would have to pass him as they exited the ship.

He pulled a scroll from his pocket and opened it up. He couldn't call them that. They were not scrolls. Not like how he had them back home. These were pieces of technology that only held information. They didn't magically make weapons or clothing appear with a splat of blood and a quick pulse of chakra. They just held information. They could bring a rocket propelled locker to his location, but sadly, he never saw a use for that. Depending on how far out you were, you'd be dead before it would arrive unless you were really good at hand-to-hand fighting. The whole concept of their weapons was even off putting to him. Who needed a weapon that would turn from one thing to another? That was just stupid and a death trap. What if it jammed? In a combat situation, if you're weapon couldn't go from one form to another, you were boned, plain and simple.

While not willing to argue against their technology because it worked for them, Sasuke was willing to at least humor them with the locker and kept his weapons that he had brought with him, which was nearly nothing, in said locker. Ozpin had gotten some specks on weapons Sasuke was interested in and promised to give it to him before their initiation tomorrow. Sasuke just hoped it wasn't going to be some sword that turned into a gun or anything along those lines. He wanted it simple!

The first batch of students exited the craft and passed him by without so much as a wave. Sasuke groaned as he sat down on a bench and watched them all interact with each other. It made him think of his old home. How many times has he ignored someone that just wanted to be his friend? If he had simply stopped what he was doing and not let his brother get to him, he might have had a better life. He might not have ended up here. God it was frustrating just thinking back on his life, all of his choices and realizing how stupid he was. Sakura was all over him, along with Ino and every other woman at his school. If he had played his cards right he could have been having sex every night. But no! Mr. Avenger had to lead a dark and gloomy life full of power and revenge. Man was he stupid.

"Hey Sasuke," a rich voice from behind caused him to snap from his train of thought and turned slightly enough to see Velvet come bouncing up to him. She smiled when she saw him wearing the bracelet and necklace. He couldn't remember which one of them had been her idea. "How are you doing?"

"Good," he answered quickly and shortly. He looked around. Faunus weren't exactly liked. He liked Velvet because, well, she wasn't fawning over him. It was nice to actually spend time with a woman that wasn't going to try and rape him at night. If he was a heavy sleeper, he wondered if Sakura might have done that to him. "How was your vacation?"

" _Make small talk with people, Sasuke. That'll make things easier and you will be able to move forward faster as a result."_ Ozpin's words came to his mind. It was from their talk last night when the weapon order was placed.

Sasuke looked at the bench and how much room he was taking up. He scooted over and patted the seat beside him. She sat down after looking around, happy with his offer, but unsure. "Do you think I care what others think?" he asked her. She sat down. "I'm already the youngest person here to join. I don't care if you have bunny ears or not. You're still you and you're strong. That's all that really matters to me."

"Thanks," she ignored his comment about only carrying in strength. "So are you ready for the initiation tomorrow?"

"I don't know any of the new students, I have no idea what my weapon is, and I'm going to be the youngest person in that group. Yeah… I'm ready." Velvet was unsure if he was being sarcastic or just rude. She decided he was being sarcastic. "Besides, it's not that I'm terrified of going out there and fighting those… things."

"Well if makes you feel any better; I didn't know anyone on my team before I meet them in the forest for initiation. No one knew my name when we all went out there. I can't think of a single day without them now." Sasuke gave a grunt of acceptance. She chuckled as she watched some of the students pass them with smiles. "So why are you out here? Waiting on someone?"

Clearing his throat, he shook his head. "No. I'm watching the new students arrive."

"Hobby?"

"No." That was creepy. "No I'm here to get to know them."

Velvet blinked. "Why aren't you trying to talk with them?" Sasuke took a deep breath as he looked away. "Are you shy about meeting new people?"

"No!" He said that a little too fast. "I'm just… not good at meeting new people. I don't have anything to talk them about that would allow us to talk." Velvet almost laughed at him. She covered her mouth and suppressed a chuckle as she got to her feet. She grabbed him wrist and dragged him to his feet. In stunned silence and let her lead him by the arm for a few feet before he tore his grip from her hand. Velvet looked hurt and confused as he looked at his wrist. "I'm sorry… I just… I don't like be led by the hand." He lied quickly.

"Oh," she said softly. "Well, silly, you're never going to meet new people if you just sit and hope they come to you. If you want to meet new people you have to go talk to them and find out what interests you may share. It works both ways." Sasuke snorted. He knew that… but what was the point in talking to anyone if you didn't know what to talk about? It wasn't like anyone would like him if he went up to them and asked them if they were strong. That would be messed up. "Hey!" Velvet screamed and waved to someone. Sasuke snapped from his train of thought.

Sasuke spied who she was calling to. It was a young man, probably no older than sixteen, wearing blue jeans, boots, a sky blue button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and a plain grey shirt under it. His hair was tan colored, his skin color was a light brown, and his eyes were golden. He carried a large duffle pack on his shoulder. Velvet waved him over. The man smiled and marched over to her.

"Velvet, it's been a while." He fixed his bag as it began to slip. He was just a big taller than she was, and that was not including her ears. He was well built with dark tattoos covering his exposed forearms. A studded belt with the words Taste Defeat carved into it kept his jeans up.

"It has!" She turned to Sasuke and smiled as she gestured to the new comer. "Sasuke, this is Aera Jasper, a fellow classmate of mine from back at the academy. He skipped out last year and is coming this year. Jasper, this is Sasuke. He's a new student that's attending Beacon this year."

Jasper smiled and extended a hand. Sasuke looked at it for a moment and then took it. He had a strong grip. Sasuke almost winced from the grip he had. "So you're a new student too? Cool. And you're friends with V here? That's cool." Jasper scratched at his nose and looked around for a moment. "So where is your team? I thought you were going to introduce me?"

"I will," she exasperated. Sasuke looked ready to leave. "So Jasper, are you still using the same weapon?" Sasuke almost perked at that. Jasper fixed his pack and gave her an odd look. "You didn't get a new one, did you?"

"No," he said quickly. He dropped his pack and unzipped. Velvet tapped Sasuke's arm and motioned down to the young man. Jasper came back holding a three-section staff made of metal. It was all silver and the middle piece had a single blue gem in the center of it. He gripped the weapon tightly, spun, and suddenly the thing was over his neck with both ends behind held by one hand. He smiled at his two onlookers. "I still have old Vicious Skewer." He stood to his full height and started making the weapon dance. Sasuke blinked as he watched the man effortless move the weapon from one hand to the other while making it dance in his arms. No more was wasted. It was a thing of beauty as he wielded the cumbersome weapon. Sasuke would have loved to see Kakashi wield such a thing. It might have been funnier if Gai did it. "What makes you think I'd get rid of this thing? I love this weapon."

"I know you do." She gestured to Sasuke. "My friend here fancies weapons like this. Well, you know, older weapons." She smiled sweetly.

Jasper twirled it one last time and finished with one part tucked under his arm, another link behind him and the final one draped over the same arm up front. "Please don't call these weapon types old. I hate it when people do that. These weapons still have a practical uses to them, even without all the fancy new stuff that gets done to them." Sasuke chuckled. "You think the same way?"

"I fancy swords or kunai," he admitted to him. Jasper nodded and turned to Sasuke fully. "I've never seen anyone wield a weapon like that. Usually it's the regular Nunchucks. Not… this." He gestured to the weapon of topic.

Jasper uncoiled the weapon and brought it all together. He placed it gently in his pack as he said, "Well, I liked them after I watched a movie with a guy that used one. I spent years trying to master it. I'm not a master with it yet, but I'm not half bad with it. Believe me, when I first started I had bruises all over my body. My mom fussed over me wanting to use such a dangerous thing. My dad liked the thought of me using something like this and got me a teacher to help me. My master hasn't even mastered this thing and he's in his sixties."

"No one can truly master any weapon. There is always someone else out there better with them than you. I even then, mastering a weapon would imply you learn all of the styles for said weapon."

"That would take a dozen life times." Jasper admitted. Sasuke nodded in agreement, suddenly at ease with the young man in front of him. Jasper picked up his bag and motioned ahead. "We should probably go to main hall. We're to gather at the main hall. Ozpin is supposed to give us a welcoming speech. I heard he gives good speeches."

"I don't know about speeches," Sasuke whispered to himself. The man was a mystery to Sasuke, but he was never going to look past his friendly demeanor. "Is that what you fight in?" Sasuke asked.

Jasper looked at down at his clothes and then to Sasuke. "I could ask you the same thing. But," Jasper suddenly looked the one eyed Sharingan user over and chuckled, "I highly doubt you'd fight in something like that. No. I don't fight in this. These are just travel or civilian clothing I wear. I believe in being a little loose when I fight so I'm not going to be weighed down by armor or anything. I can take a few good hits from Grimm if it comes to it, but I'm pretty quick and what I can't dodge I can take. Being bashed by my weapon over and over made me pretty durable."

Smiling, Sasuke snorted a chuckle. "Well if you use something like that, I would hope you're strong." Sasuke put his hands in his pockets and started marching for the main chamber. A few dozen students were already gathered, some were talking, and others were looking around, sizing everyone up in the room. Sasuke immediately thought of the first exam for the Chuunin exam. The two moved to the front of the group and looked around. "So what made you wanna do this?"

Jasper had his back to him. Sasuke rolled his eye and sighed. "I'm doing it because I want to protect people. My father used to tell me stories about people with power doing the right thing and standing up for the weak. There's too much injustice in this world and it needs to be stopped. I thought this would be the best place to start fixing it all. Huntsmen are regarded as the mightiest and noblest of warriors."

"So you're here to protect people and not for the fame and glory?"

"I'll gladly save a thousand people even if they don't know my name. In fact, I don't want to hear them calling out my name. I'd rather be the mysterious figure that shows up when people want my help. That's what I want." Jasper smiled at Sasuke as Ozpin took the stand. "I'm going to become the strongest man in the world and protect everyone. But if I was to be honest, I'm here for fun as well. No one on my block where I live could beat me. I fought Grimm before and they were the second strongest thing I ever fought. The first is my master." Jasper had a faraway look in his eye. "What about you? Why are you doing this?"

Sasuke clenched his jaw as he looked at Ozpin. He was talking to Glynda about something. She looked a little put off by whatever he said, but wasn't about to openly complain in front of them. "I'm here for a new life. I made a mistake in my life and I wanted to do make it up. So here I am."

Jasper grinned. "Well," he slapped a hand on his shoulder and rocked him a little, "let's get stronger together and make people see us as heroes."

Ozpin took to the microphone, pushing his glasses up just enough so that they barely covered his eyes. "I'll… keep this brief." His eyes danced to the balcony where he could see at least a hundred different students from various grades. He was always happy to see them. Shame he had to keep this short. "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when have finished you plan to dedicate yourself to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy. In need of purpose… direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this. But your time at this school will teach you that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

Ozpin took a look at Sasuke before he walked off. Jasper snorted. "Some speech," he groaned. "I was expecting that to last a little longer." He ignored Glynda. Sasuke shrugged as his scroll beeped at him. "Who's messaging you?"

Sasuke rolled his eye again as he withdrew the object of irritation. Come see me. Sasuke shut it and sighed.

"Where are you going?"

"I have to go see someone about my weapon. I came up here without it. I should be getting it now." Sasuke waved him off as he exited the main chamber and found Ozpin waiting for him in the elevator. Neither spoke for a while. Sasuke pulled out his scroll again and checked a special AP he had on his. It beeped and he shut it his eye. Ozpin looked away with a pang of regret. It was the monitor for Naruto. He was still alive and still in a coma. This tied Sasuke over in knowing that his friend was alive when he couldn't see him. "Did you get my sword?" His voice was horsed. He faked the tough guy act.

Ozpin smiled. "Yes," he confessed. "We procured it this morning. Along with a few others items you may like." The doors parted. They both entered Ozpin's office. A long purple brief case was on Ozpin's desk. He stood it up and flipped all but the last lock on it. "Sasuke, I understand you want to change your life. I'm happy you've told me about your past and how you want to change. But I want you to swear to me to this weapon will never be used to harm an innocent person."

"Let's hope I never have to draw it on anyone. I don't think I could draw such a weapon on anyone without seeing his face right now." Ozpin took a deep breath and flipped the last lock. The case opened and a black sword in its scabbard rested gently in the white cloth lining. Sasuke took it out and examined the blade. It was sky blue. He unsheathed the whole thing and gave it a test swing. It was guardless chokuto that was just nearly too long for Sasuke to use properly. He'd get the hang of it. The scabbard was metal and light. An engraving in red and blue showed his symbol, the Sharingan, on both the hilt and scabbard. "Nice touch," he remarked oddly.

"Well, you can hardly blame me for wanting to put _some_ flair on it." Ozpin almost sounded like a kid. Sasuke gave him a warning glare before noticing the kunai and shurikens that were also in the case. There were a dozen of each and one large folded shuriken. With a quick snap it opened into a four bladed shuriken. Sasuke smiled. "The man who crafted these says he'd like to meet you one day. If you intend to fight using these weapons, you'll have to go to him for repairs unless you know how to tend to them."

"I think I'll do that." Sasuke put them back in the case and snapped it shut. Ozpin took a deep breath. "Thank you… For all of this."

"It's customary to name your weapon. Perhaps you would like to think on it for a bit."

Sasuke snapped the last lock and shook his head. "Stormbringer…" he said softly. "I'm trying to be a different person, but if I'm wronged or angered, it's going to pull a storm out of me. So I'll name this sword that to try and stop that from happening. This sword will be my embodiment of rage. When I draw this sword, whatever my target is will be brought down." Ozpin stood a little straighter and his eyes narrowed. "So when I'm fighting other students, I won't use it. I'm pretty sure I can take them without using this." He smiled at the thought of fighting Jasper suddenly. He could beat that man, right?

"Well then," Ozpin tapped his cane and suddenly his serious expression was gone, replaced with one of joy. "I do hope you use Stormbringer well. Take care to avoid using that near your face. If you force your aura through it, it may blow up in your face." Sasuke glared at him. Ozpin chuckled. "I'm kidding. The blade is only red because of the type of mineral he used to make the blade sturdy. It's not dust imbued."

Relieved, Sasuke nodded his thanks and departed for the lockers. He was going to stash his stuff and go to the barn where the rest of the students would be located.

(-)

"There you are!"

Sasuke blinked as he adjusted his eye patch and found Jasper in the bathroom with him. Sasuke looked at himself and then to the man beside him. He was sleeping in shorts and no shirt. Sasuke opted for some pajamas and a plain blue shirt. His necklace was in his hand and he was in the middle of putting it in the bag with his combat clothes for tomorrow. Jasper was covered in tattoos. Most of them just like tribal stuff but a few reminded him of his own markings when activating his Curse Seal. He absentmindedly touched the spot where the seal was as he looked at him.

"You should see some of the girls they have out there." He whistled. Sasuke dreaded going out there. Hopefully they'd all be powerful people he could respect and not just fan girls that swooned over the guy with the dark past or some shit like that. He couldn't go through that again. "Have you talked to anyone else out there?"

"No," Sasuke answered quickly. Jasper shrugged. "Have you?"

"Yeah!" He made that sound like it was supposed to be common knowledge. Sasuke wanted to kick himself for being socially awkward. Jasper wasn't really his friend. He was just someone he knew through Velvet. That wasn't a real friend to Sasuke. An old weapon wasn't something he could say attached him to this person. "I talked to a girl named Yang. She's hot… maybe a little ditzy, but hot. I'd date her if I didn't have someone back home."

Sasuke thought of Sakura for a moment. How badly hurt was she that neither of them came home? "Is she strong?"

"Didn't come up. I was too busy staring at her rack." He laughed. Sasuke looked at himself in the mirror and noticed a light curve at the corner of his mouth. He was smirking at the thought of that. Jasper sat on the sink and licked at his teeth. "Look, V told me you're a little… socially awkward. She wants me to try and help you along. I'll do what I can, man. It's hard to find people that like practical weapons in this day and age. But you can't go around asking people if they're strong. You have to have more hobbies than just getting stronger or old weapons. Branch out."

 _Branch out?_ Sasuke wanted to just snap at him. _How am I supposed to branch out when my life has been fight, train, fight, train, fight, and train? That doesn't leave much for a social life. I mean… I killed that._ "I'll try. I never had that many hobbies growing up. It was train, eat, sleep, avoid fan girls, and do the whole cycle again the next day."

"Avoid fan girls?" Jasper laughed. "Why?"

"Why indeed," Sasuke hissed. He wanted to bang his head on the sink. He didn't want to be responsible for property damage. Not yet anyways. "Consider it me being stupid when I was younger and move on."

"Fair enough." He popped a grape in his mouth from a small bag he carried in. Sasuke arched a brow. "You should go out there, make another friend. Just go to someone. Anyone. Even a girl." He cracked a shit eating grin. Sasuke wanted to slap him.

"Fine," he hissed. Jasper smiled and kicked off the sink. "What are you doing?"

"I wanna watch this and make sure no one steals my spot. I got a good spot picked out."

Sasuke rolled his eye and ventured out. Almost instantly a few eyes were drawn to him. A quick ruckus from two boys being cheered on by a girl diverted everyone's attention. A few whooped as the fighting got intense enough to the point that weapons would have drawn if they had them. Sasuke moved through the crowd quickly and looked over everyone before he found a girl sitting by herself reading a book next to a set of candles. He passed her over and looked for someone else. A woman with red hair was lying down by herself reading a book. She munched happily on an apple. Sasuke moved towards her and sat down beside her.

"Hello?!" She greeted with a wave.

"Hi," Sasuke could feel someone looking over his shoulder. He glanced over and spied Jasper moving away and talking to the girl reading the book by the candles. She wasn't having any of whatever he was serving. He laughed and eventually moved on. "I'm Sasuke..."

She extended a hand, "I'm Pyrrha Nikos. It's a pleasure to meet you, Sasuke." She looked at him funny. "Do you not have a last name?"

Sasuke opened his mouth and then shut it. He had never come up with a last name. "No," he answered truthfully. "I… don't remember my last name. My parents died before I got to know them. I was never adopted." He wondered if she could see through his life. She didn't seem to see through it. There was a crash and suddenly there was more fighting. "Why is everyone so noisy?"

"We're being cooped up in one room. Do you expect us to not fight?" Sasuke conceded. "Besides; I think it's better they get this out of their system. They need to be thinking straight tomorrow or they might die to the initiation test tomorrow."

"Whoever I'm with won't die." Sasuke stood up to leave. He put his hands in his pockets. "I won't allow it."

"Bold words," Pyrrha said, happy by them. "Perhaps we might be on the same team."

"Perhaps." Sasuke marched over to Jasper. He was lying on his mat. Sasuke looked around and noticed that his was above the young mans'. "You planned on that." He accused.

Jasper cracked an eye open and laughed. "Not really," he said while sitting up. He looked around. Most of the others were trying to sleep now. All the fighting and fear of tomorrow was putting everyone to sleep. "Consider it fate and move on. You're going to need your beauty sleep for tomorrow. Your fists need as much rest as they can get for tomorrow."

"My fists?" That was an odd statement.

"Yeah," he replied while laying back down, "the gods inside your fists will need their rest. I'm sure that your tiny fists will need their rest so that you can use them tomorrow."

Sasuke felt a desire to smack him rise again. He thought of Lee and shuddered. "Do you… do insane pushups or anything?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"Just answer it."

Jasper held his gaze and then said, "I do pushups, sit ups, squats, and go on runs. But no, I don't do anything extreme. I believe in training hard and playing hard. So I'm not going to waste a full day just training without playing at some point." He rolled over, pulling his covers over his form. "Go to bed. I'm tired and I want to be ready for tomorrow."

Sasuke sighed. _Some friend… Can't stay up late._ Sasuke peered through the darkness with his Sharingan and spied the black haired woman that had been reading the book. She was still reading it in the dark. He blinked and suddenly she looked up and noticed him. There was a brief moment of panic that crossed her features and he turned away, acting like he hadn't seen her. _How is she reading a book in the dark?_ He pushed the thought from his mind and fell asleep.

A/N

So I think this goes without saying, Jasper is on Sasuke's team. I'm keeping the other two a mystery until the next chapter because that's when they show up. So I'm not a hundred percent certain because I haven't seen a case of it yet, but do you think it's possible for the leader of the team to not have their name be at the front of the team name. Like how if team RWBY had Weiss as the leader instead of Ruby, but kept it the same way. I had that thought while making the team and their name along with it. I have a few different variations of it, but still, it was something I thought on and wasn't too sure.


	3. Team Seven No More

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

I suppose I should state that I will be using OC's for this story. For what stories I've seen of Naruto entering this world, he's always with team RWBY. Not gonna lie, I like the idea of doing that, but it's also something that I hate. I have mixed feelings about that and while the idea of using three other OC's is generally kind of frowned upon because they're author created characters, in this case, I kind of want to do it. So without further delay, here is the first chapter for what I hope will be a fic you guys want me to continue.

Chapter 2

"Wake up, lazy butt!" Sasuke snapped awake and glared at the offending owner of the voice. A girl with pink hair dashed around a fellow male teenager with long black hair wearing a green oriental shirt with long sleeves. He groaned as she dashed around him signing very loudly. "It's morning! It's morning! It's morning! Ittttt'ssssssss morning~!"

Sighing, Sasuke collapsed back onto his pack and huffed in annoyance. He had trouble sleeping during the night because of someone snoring very loudly and because of someone mumbling about pancakes in their sleep. He had a sneaking suspicion that she was the culprit. Aside from those interruptions he had a nightmare about his brother coming here and torturing him in the night. He checked his right eye and found dried specks of blood. He looked at his pillow. There were small splatters of red across it. Sasuke got to his feet, wiped what he could away from his eye and shoved the pillow in his pack.

He made his way to the bathroom and got around. A few girls and boys were already in the bathroom prepping for the day. Sasuke caught sight of a blond haired man with blue eyes brushing his teeth and looking worried about something. The redhead from last night was busy brushing her hair and putting on a gold headband. Maybe it was a tiara? Sasuke wasn't sure what it was, but it was really dumb looking. Why wear something fancy when it was going to be the thing you fought in? At least the blond made since with what he was putting on. He was wearing a hoodie, blue jeans, shoes, and had pieces of armor over his chest and arms. Sasuke absently wondered what his weapon would be if he wore armor like that.

Sasuke pushed the thought from his mind as he moved to one the showers and stripped. He showered quickly, came out with the towel wrapped around his waist. A few girls turned his way and whistled. Sasuke spied the blond haired girl with the impressive rack that Jasper had mentioned. She was looking him over and gave him a thumbs up of approval. He blew her off with a role of his eye as he moved towards his locker to get dressed. He grabbed his gear and went to a changing stall. Throwing the door shut he sighed and dropped his towel.

Tearing into his clothes he slipped on the new garb with a visible scowl. Coco had no tastes for combat clothes. He was thankful that Velvet understood his sense of style when it came to combat. He didn't want to look cool. It had to be practical or he wasn't going to wear it. He slipped on a zip up sky blue t-shirt and then grabbed some dark hakama style pants. They were the closes thing to his clothing from Konoha. He wasn't about to complain either. Velvet even found him some dark colored gauntlets to go with it all. Sasuke grabbed his combat sandals and felt a rush when he noticed that they were open toed. Velvet really did him good. He was going to have to go thank her when this was over.

He pushed the stall open and marched back to his locker.

"Can you imitate a sloth?"

Sasuke's head nearly snapped when he heard her voice. The same pink haired girl was still pestering the same young man. He made a pair of green weapons disappear in his sleeves. Sasuke had to blink twice before he accepted that they had somehow shrunk or compacted themselves down to a level to achieve such a thing before he started ignoring them again.

"Nora," the young man finally spoke, "I don't think sloths make a lot of noise."

Grabbing his gear, Sasuke suppressed a chuckle as he tried to think about the kind of noise a sloth made. Usually it was a groan, but that was him making fun of Kakashi or even Sakura when both were being lazy. Wouldn't Chouji be the real version of a sloth? That fat oaf was a good for nothing and would probably die from eating too much.

Sasuke put his sword on the small of his back and held it in place with a yellow and blue sash that Velvet had found. She said it could be a scarf. He respectfully shot down her idea. As did Coco for some reason. She had been all for more flair, but not a scarf. He grabbed his pouches, some tap, and tapped the pouch to his left and right legs. He placed the Fuma shuriken on his gauntlet before shutting the locker. He walked past everyone as they talked about their woes and schemed on getting on the team that they wanted to be on. A white haired girl was talking to the one with red hair from yesterday, Pyrrha, if he remembered her name right.

"Sasuke," Pyrrha called out. He stopped with a low groan and faked a smile as he turned to her. "I wanted to wish you the best of luck out there before everything starts." The white haired girl looked him over and snorted at him. "This is Weiss Schnee. She's an heiress to the Schnee Dust Company." Sasuke blinked in response. Pyrrha's smile remained. "So you fancy older weapons?" Sasuke put his hand on the hilt of his blade and wanted to draw it to show her, but stopped and nodded. "Well good luck out there. I hope we meet each other out there."

"Do we really want someone like him on a team with us?" Weiss asked.

"There is nothing wrong with him that I can see." Pyrrha informed her. "Besides, I'm all for how the cards fall. But there is no point in denying that I want people on my team that can help me protect the weak." Weiss visibly rolled her eyes. "You disagree?"

"This is a job at the end of the day. We'll get paid to protecting the weak." She glanced back at Sasuke and visibly snorted at his attire again. "At least you're quiet so far. Unlike other people so far." She jabbed a thumb in the direction of Yang and another girl. Sasuke didn't look and merely shrugged. "Tough guy act? That's not attractive at all."

"I wasn't acting tough. I just don't like the idea of being on someone's team that's going to be snotty. It reminds me of someone I don't like." Before another word could be said Sasuke departed and found Jasper talking to Velvet and her team. Yatsuhashi and Fox were looking bored to as the man spoke only to the two females. Sasuke stopped behind him with a bored look on his face. Velvet and Coco fought hard to suppress their grins.

Sasuke caught the tail end of, "…cheating if I look and don't touch?" as Jasper stood in combat clothing.

He was wearing a skin tight black shirt and blue cargo pants with the ends of the pants tucked into combat boots. He wore part of a teal robe shirt with the other sleeve missing. His weapon was kept in a leather pouch that was tied to his side on a brown leather belt that read KILLSHOT and POWER in a dark blue. His arms were covered in similar gauntlets to Sasuke's but his bore the marking of a fist in a triangle on the back of it.

"I think that does count as cheating," Yatsuhashi told him bitterly.

Fox gave him a sharp glance before shaking his head. "Doesn't count in my book. But hey, your book may be different from mine." He looked passed Jasper and to Sasuke. "Nice to see you again, Sasuke."

Jasper whipped around with a smile. "Nice threads."

"We helped pick them out," Coco informed him. She adjusted her glasses, a pleasured smile on her face as she looked him over. "I still say the other outfit would have been much better."

"At the end of the day you're not the one wearing it," Velvet told her. Coco laughed softly and gave her friend and fellow teammate a quick glance. "Besides, Sasuke had all the power in this. If he didn't want it, he wouldn't have gotten it." She felt proud to call Sasuke her friend and also show the fashion wasn't really everything. Coco would say otherwise. She was the panicle of cool at this school and had won many hearts over with her idea of fashion and attitude. She fancied all forms of clothing if it looked good. "Sasuke, Jasper, I wish you both the best of luck out there."

Jasper tapped his weapon and smiled. "I don't need luck when I have my good luck charm with me." He looked at Sasuke. The Sharingan user had a look of annoyance. "Might wanna wish him some luck though. And by that, I mean with the ladies." Fox gave him a high five and laughed. The other male sighed, shaking his head and marching off. Coco chuckled and licked her teeth as she wondered if that was a double meaning or just an honest truth. "Maybe we'll get lucky and get on the same team."

"One can hope," Velvet said with an air of disbelief. She got who she wanted, but other teams that came with friends weren't so lucky. Of course, they were dropped out of a plane and told that the first person they made contact with would be their teammate for the remainder of their time at Beacon. Hopefully they'd keep the team once they all graduated. She really liked Yatsuhashi. He was a nice person. "Well still, I wish you both the best of luck."

Sasuke gave a slight nod before leaving. Weiss passed him with a snort of disapproval again while Pyrrha waved happily. Jasper blinked and narrowed his eyes on the former Uchiha. "Lucky bastard…"

"The white haired girl hates me and I don't know what to think about Pyrrha." Jasper clenched his jaw and pursed his lips as they started walking. "I ignored her and she said I had the tough guy act going. I didn't say anything to her and she assumed I'm someone beneath her." Sasuke idly wondered if that was what it was like to be Sakura or Ino around him. They would have licked the ground he walked on and showed up to school wearing a cat outfit if he said he liked sexy cat girls. All that power and he never used it. Looking back, he really did miss out on a lot.

"Sounds like she likes you."

"Is that what that means?"

"How old are you?"

"Thirteen." Jasper stopped and stared at him. "I'm gifted…" That wasn't a lie. If Sasuke hadn't spent his time being an avenger and focusing more on team skills he might have been stronger. Of course, there was no point in wondering about what could have been when it was in the past. He could dream. He could dream that his brother never went insane and killed their clan in some sort of homicidal rampage. Or that his best friend/rival was lying in a hospital bed asleep and probably not capable of waking up. "Is that a problem?"

"No," Jasper snapped from his momentary shock and kept moving. "It's just… you don't look it. You must be rather tall for your age. I thought you were at least fifteen or sixteen."

"Maybe my parents were tall?" Sasuke remembered that his father was tall. Of course, to a five year old, your father and mother were giants and you were just an ant. So, really, he couldn't truly judge them on that part. He was sure that Sakura was taller than himself. He knew she was taller than Naruto. Maybe he was taller than her? "So what do you know about this part?"

Glynda gathered the students up and made them follow her. Jasper scratched at his chin. "Not much…" He kept glancing around for something or someone. Sasuke looked as well. He could see Pyrrha and Weiss up ahead talking about something. The girl in a red and black dress with a red cape was talking with Yang. They seemed rather heated about something. Nora and the guy she had been pestering walked side by side with Nora doing all of the talking. "Last year they took the students out and kicked them out of air planes. I doubt they're going to do that this year."

"That doesn't sound too bad." He remembered Naruto saying his master pushed him into a ravine where the walls were covered in water, making it impossible for him to stick to it. Naruto survived because he was able to summon the toad boss or something. He hadn't paid much attention when it was getting explained to him. If he had never seen him summon that thing he wouldn't have believed a word of what he said. He still didn't believe him, even though he saw it. "How does this part work?"

"Aside from them throwing us into the forest, it's pretty much done by who you make contact with first. Last year everyone had a name printed on their backs and chest so that if someone saw you, they had to say your name. If you were paired, you got to remove it and move on. Doubt they'll do that this year." Glynda stopped and the line parted. She said something that both boys missed, but it was clear they were all supposed to stand on a metal pad. Sasuke looked down at it and jumped on it once. It caved in when he did it and he could already see what was happening in his minds' eye. They were going for a ride. "This is a death trap waiting to happen," Jasper said with a laugh. He faked being at ease.

"Afraid of heights?"

"Nope," Jasper said quickly. "Just afraid of falling from said heights… I had a dream I was falling. I woke up before I hit the ground."

Sasuke tuned him out and glanced to his right. The black haired girl that was reading the book in the dark was beside him. Sasuke blinked when she caught his eye. Ozpin was sipping on some coffee while Glynda kept scrolling through her scroll for something. She was looking for something. Sasuke considered activating his Sharingan to see, but opted against it. If this was going to be like the Chuunin Exams second part, he wasn't showing what he could do to anyone. That would get you killed. "For years you have trained to become warriors. Today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

Glynda stepped forward. "Now," she began with an air of authority, "I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well… allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates… today."

A few people whined about that. Ozpin might have smiled as he used his cane filled hand to push his glasses up a bit. "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone you can work well with." Again, more moaning. "That said; first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years." There was a sharp intake of air through the crowd and then someone questioned his words. Nora started talking to her friend, but Ozpin kept talking. "After you've partnered up make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path or you will die."

Sasuke counted off all the things he was expecting to see and all of the things he was hoping he'd see down there. He was hoping to see giant animals, poisonous plants, and quick sand zones. What he figured he'd see would be Grimm, Grimm, and Grimm.

"You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, along with your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?" The blond haired boy wearing armor raised his hand and muttered something. Sasuke didn't catch what he said before his pad clicked and he was suddenly in the air.

The force behind the catapult was surprisingly strong. Sasuke grunted as he felt the wind rush over his face and whip is hair around. He pushed through it and righted himself. He flipped in the air so that his back was to the trees. He wanted to see where everyone was going to land before he reached the apex of his flight. He could easily see Jasper flying far to the north east. Yang was flying further ahead thanks to some kind of blasts that came from his gauntlets. There were a dozen others he spotted. Some were already angling themselves for a fast landing. Others were taking their time to slow themselves.

Sasuke twisted in the air when he felt himself begin to slow down and gravity take hold of him. He turned fully and started searching for the ruins that Ozpin spoke of. He caught sight of Grimm in the area and looked as far as he could to the north as he possibly could. He spied something just beyond the range of his vision. It looked like it might be the temple. Accepting that it was his destination, Sasuke flipped and righted himself for a quick landing as the ground came racing to meet him. He landed on a tree branch and jumped to the next one as fast as he could so his momentum would push him forward. He kept it going for a few more minutes before he finally decided to slow down and survey the area. He got to the top of a tree and started searching for the temple ruins.

Something darted over his head and he ducked. A black bird with a white face circled and came back at him with its talons poised for the kill. Sasuke flung a kunai at it. It vanished into a black cloud of smoke before it even hit him. Blinking, he took a deep breath and made a note that Grimm weren't just going to be large animals. They were also going to be small animals. He jumped and raced for his kunai. No point losing his weapons now if he had a limited supply. He wasn't back in Konoha were he could go to a store and get a case of them anymore. He heard the thunk of his blade on a tree and found it a dozen or so yards from where he had expected it to land. He snatched it out of the trunk and placed it in his pouch.

The sound of a twig snapping and leaves rustling made him jump into the tree and look down. Three humanoid wolves ran out sniffing the air. They stood upright and were covered in bone armor around their backs, arms, and face. Sasuke narrowed his eyes on one as it sniffed some more and then looked up at him. He dashed down on it and removed its head with a quick slash from his kunai. It dropped over and turned to ash before it fully touched the soil. The other two turned and swung. Sasuke ducked under the first swing and jumped over the second. He tossed kunai into the back of their skulls. The force was enough to get through the armor. One died, the other turned slowly, ignoring death and lunged at him. Sasuke rolled backwards with the motion of his jump from earlier and tossed two more. One caught the throat and the other caught the eye. It gave a whimpering cry as death took it.

Grabbing his kunai up he heard the sound of air being sliced and ducked under something that went speeding over his head. He heard a cry and twisted. One of the bushes produced a Grimm with one of his kunai in its head. Sasuke jerked around and he saw his partner. They made eye contact and for a moment Sasuke was cursing himself as it wasn't Jasper. He didn't know this person.

The person had pale skin and pointy ears with two studs in each ear. He had short silver hair, silver eyes and black irises with slitted pupils that reminded Sasuke of Naruto's eyes when using the red power he had. Under his left eye was a sparkling upside down hollowed triangle with another filled in triangle in it and two tears under it. He wore a white long sleeved t-shirt two strings at the top to hold it close under a dark blue jacket with golden designed on it and with the collar popped up and held together by three golden chains. He wore blue cargo pants with shin guards covering his legs and partially covered his snow white combat boots. On his back were two oversized garden sickles painted a dark blue with white spatter patterns over the jagged blades. Sasuke could barely make out that the weapons didn't have normal wooden handles, but rather a metal ring at the base of the blade.

Sasuke blinked and he did as well. "If it makes you feel better," he began with an audible sigh, "you're not the one I wanted to meet out here either."

"You don't look strong." Sasuke mouthed off, returning to his former self for a split second. Before he could correct himself he felt cold steel on his cheek and warm blood slide down his face. A chain whipped by him and he ducked before one of the weapons' came back. Her weapon smacked together and Sasuke was quick to realize that it wasn't just a sickle, but rather a mutated version of a chain-sickle. The handle was the ring and the chains were inside. Sasuke's hand went to his sword and he quickly checked himself. _No,_ he thought bitterly, _I'm trying to make a new life out here._

"I'll have you know that I am strong. I'm not some push over. I threw your weapon back to you, didn't I? I even killed the sneaky Grimm that was going to catch you." He put the weapon on his back and cracked his neck. Sizing him up, Sasuke was quick to note that his new teammate wasn't exactly all there. "Also, before you assume anything, I'm a woman."

Blinking, Sasuke wondered if there was any irony there. Maybe there was. This felt familiar to him. Maybe Naruto had told him a story about their first mission. Maybe that was why it felt familiar. "I'm Sasuke."

"Just Sasuke?" She arched a thin brow. Sasuke nodded grimly. She shrugged; something that Sasuke barely registered. She had an aura that made him think she wasn't here. It was odd. He could see her, hear her, but somehow he felt like she wasn't standing in front of him or that his eyes were meant to wonder away. "Persia Zure," she finally said with a groan.

Sasuke had nothing to say. He simply turned and started walking. No point in moving as fast as he could now. He didn't want to leave her behind. She stalked up to him and Sasuke took note that she was just an inch or two taller than he was. The feeling of looking away kept tugging at the back of his mind. It was a strange feeling. He kept starring at her until she finally turned on him and glared. A scream had his hand fly to his sword. Persia took notice of his touch on the weapon and reached for her own. There was a brief moment where they stopped and both glanced back towards the spot they had been launched from. There was a loud scream and suddenly someone went flying overhead.

"Poor bastard," she said with a light chuckle. Sasuke watched him go flying with a narrowed eye. There was a low rumble and the former Uchiha glanced over his shoulder. Trees were parting in a hurry. "We should run," she advised. Sasuke wanted to stay and fight it, but decided that fighting whatever was coming might not work if it could mow down trees. He sprinted after Persia as she jumped out of the trees and made a dash for the stone structures further ahead. Sasuke spied a few people there looking up. He grabbed her shoulder and yanked her to the side. A giant bird was circling overhead. "A Nevermore?" she questioned.

The trees exploded outwards and Pyrrha came running out with a giant scorpion hot on her tail.

Sharingan spinning, Sasuke dashed forward, unsheathed his sword and cut through its back two legs. It screamed loudly and turned on him. Pyrrha turned, her weapon ready and firing. She put a few rounds in its side. Persia flung one of her chain-sickles' at it and let it tear into its side with the greatest of ease. The creature gave a powerful yell and surged forward towards its attackers. Sasuke jumped on top of it and slashed at its head. The stinger came down. Sasuke flipped out of the way and landed beside Persia. She hissed a curse as a little girl in red charge forward at it only to be backhanded away it. She said something Sasuke didn't catch and fired on it with her oversized scythe. It did nothing but anger it. The bird in the sky came back as she started running.

"RUBY!"

Sasuke grunted and looked between the now identified girl and Yang as they raced to each other. The Nevermore came swooping in. It stopped, hovered, and flapped its wings in a powerful show of force, sending dozens of heavy feathers raining down on the two. Ruby's cape was snagged and Yang got trapped. Sasuke started flipping through seals to get the scorpion's attention when a block of ice formed in front it and froze the stinger and one claw in place. Weiss appeared with her rapier stabbed in the ground where the ice formed. She said something to Ruby and then walked off. Yang and Ruby embraced.

"Sasuke!" Jasper's voice rang out. He turned and saw him waving him over. "Relics! Right here!"

Sighing, he marched over to his friend. He was a little worse for wear, but he seemed okay for the whole twenty some odd hours he'd known him. Another group had already arrived and was looking around, some holding pieces. The black haired girl that had been reading the book in the dark made eye contact with him and then hastily turned away, annoyance and fear flashing across her face. Nora was doing the pee dance beside her friend she had bugged earlier this morning and the blond haired boy that wore white armor was there as well. He carried a sword at his side.

Persia walked forward and examined the relics. "Chess pieces?" she asked curiously. Jasper nodded, unsure himself.

"We took the pony!" Yang explained, showing her proud little golden pony off to the group. Nora started singing about a castle and how she was queen or something. "I'm Yang by the way."

"Persia Zure," she replied with a frown. "I'm a woman by the way."

"Really?" The black haired girl asked with a roll of her eyes.

"Most people think I'm a guy."

Sasuke marched up to the pieces and looked them over. Persia snatched up a golden Bishop. "Not going to put it to a vote with your teammate?" Jasper inquired. Sasuke noticed he was holding the same piece as well. Persia raised said piece as if to ask silently for approval. Sasuke shrugged. She shrugged back and put it in one of her pockets. "Do you talk via shrugs and silent grunts or something? Sasuke, you might have a competitor here for being social awkward now."

"Leave her alone," Sasuke defended, unhappy at being forced to speak on behalf of his teammate. While he would have rather had Jasper as a teammate, he was willing to at least humor Persia. It wasn't like he didn't like her already. She cut him and threw one of his weapons back at him, killing something he had missed. That at least spoke something about her skills… right? "Where's your partner or did you get here on your own?"

"I'm here," a voice said with a loud groan. Sasuke looked around and spied a teenage boy leaning sitting on the steps to the temple.

This was not what Sasuke had expected when he looked at the person in question. He wore black hakama pants with silver shin guard and black opened toed sandals. A white sash with four fist sized gems covered it with the excess from the sash coming down to his knees in twin lines. It was hard to tell if what he wore was connected to his shirt or not, but from his hips to the center of his chest was a black leather that looked like it might have been part of a bodysuit once and was connected to a fishnet styled shirt with no sleeves. His left forearm was covered in tape and his right forearm was covered in a white claw gauntlet that covered his entire hand and stopped right at his elbow with two small hooks facing backwards at the elbow and three more pointed forward towards the wrist. He wore a leather collar and had a bone necklace wrapped around his neck with teeth dangling from it. His hair was shaggy and a rich brown, matching his skin color. But what really made him stand out wasn't his choice of attire, it was the two pointy ears on the top of his head, one with a bite mark and the other with a stud bolted into it.

"Name is Robin Emert. Call me Emert." He extended a hand. Persia took it without much thought. He smiled weakly towards her. She turned her noise up at him. "So you're Sasuke…" The Sharingan user cast a quick glance at Jasper. Said man was talking with the others. "Jasper said you were young… You don't look it."

"My age has nothing to do with how tall I am." Sasuke wanted to smack Jasper. Smiling at his reflection in a mirror was not going to make him forget this day.

"Persia Zure," she released her grip on Emert's hand and returned to Sasuke's side. "We should go. We have what we came for," she said in a whisper. Sasuke looked over the group before him. They were discussing something. "Traveling as one big group will get us all killed," she warned.

"I'll take my chances," Sasuke replied quietly. He moved to the group, for once feeling at home. Jasper and Emert walked up beside him, both looking at the sky. "So what's the plan?"

"Guys, that thing is circling back." The blond haired boy in armor warned. "What are we going to do?"

"Look," Weise began, suddenly not sounding like someone with something up their butt, "there's no since in dillydallying. Our objective is right in front of us." Weiss explained.

"She's right," Ruby followed up. "Our mission is to grab and artifact and make it back to the cliff. There is no point in fighting these things."

"Run and live," the boy asked with an air of acceptance. "That is an idea I can get behind."

Ruby and the blond haired boy moved up to the last few remaining artifacts and grabbed one each. Ruby took the golden knight piece while the other took the rook piece.

"Time we left," Nora's green shirted friend suggested. The scorpion pulled hard on the ice in an attempt to break free. It was getting closer to achieve its goal.

"Right!" Ruby took a deep breath and started running. "Let's go!"

Sasuke bolted and ran to the front of the group. He kept an eye on the bird as it soared over head. He glanced back and spied the others tailing behind him with only Ruby able to keep up with him. The ground trembled and Sasuke jumped up into the branches and then above the trees. The trees were being pushed down by something from the west. The tree line was in sight. He stopped on the top of a tree and formed a minor fire jutsu to ignite the forest in the hopes that it would stop whatever was heading their way.

The Nevermore screeched. Sasuke looked up at it as it began heading for the cliff where more ruins were built over a ravine. Sasuke narrowed his eye and formed his Sharingan. He could make out its muscle movements. He grinned, happy to know his Sharingan would at least give him that edge over the creatures as he dropped down beside the others.

"Trouble up ahead!" he told them.

"There is something else heading this way!" Weiss added. Sasuke hoped his fire was enough to keep it from getting closer to them. They passed the tree line and broke into groups. Weiss moved to the black haired girl. Sasuke moved with Persia to take cover behind some stone pillars with Nora and her green shirted friend. Jasper took cover with Pyrrha and the blond haired boy while Emert moved beside Ruby and Yang.

The Nevermore flew over them all and landed on the tallest building by the cliff that they needed to get to. "Well that's great!" Yang snapped.

The ground quacked and the scorpion came charging out. "Oh man! Run!"

Sasuke and Persia turned and glanced at it. It was running for the group. Nora and her friend ran out while she got an order to distract the bird. She pulled her weapon from her back and started firing large rounds at the bird. Sasuke charged the scorpion, sword drawn and ready for blood. He blinked out of existence and appeared on top of it, his sword cleaving its way through its armor. It kept running for Nora. The two dark haired teen jumped up and cut up its face, stunning it momentarily, giving Weiss time to grab Nora and jump away. The bird screeched and suddenly the earth trembled as another creature appeared. It was a giant black pig just a bit bigger than the scorpion.

"Run for the bridge!" Pyrrha shouted. Sasuke looked back at the group as they made their way to the bridge and then back to the pig. It hadn't made a choice on what to do just yet.

Deciding to run for the bridge, Sasuke bolted and ran as fast as he could. He dropped the last of his paper bombs at the legs of the scorpion. They detonated in a ball of fire that sent flames shooting skyward. The scorpion emerged with minor burns. Sasuke didn't bother to look back. He glanced to his left and saw the bird coming in. He ran hard when he saw Persia stop and try to turn back. She was too slow and the Nevermore crashed into the bridge, splitting the group apart. Sasuke grabbed Persia before gravity took her for a ride off the bridge and threw her back to it as he fell off the side. Jasper screamed for him and thrust his weapon down. The raven haired youth snatched it up as felt gravity do its work as his hands almost slipped on the weapon. Jasper hit the ground and fell off the edge but a quick hand from the black haired girl caught his ankle. She struggled to pull them up.

"Throw me at the cliff!" Sasuke ordered.

"What? I can't throw you that far!" Jasper shouted.

Sasuke looked past him and to the black haired girl. "Do it or we both fall! Or worse, we take her with us!" Jasper hissed and screamed at the black haired beauty. He called her Blake. She started rocking back and forth. Sasuke took a deep breath and waited until he was well within range to land on the cliff high enough up and not fall to his death before letting go. Blake, free from the weight, was able to yank Jasper to the safety of the bridge. Once he was up she joined him at the side and saw Sasuke running straight up the cliff with his sword drawn. "I'll hold off the pig! You guys deal with the scorpion!"

"Are you for real?!" Jasper screamed and looked at the Deathstalker. "He's gotta be kidding?! Right?" Blake had no answer for him. "Damn it! Emert! We gotta help Sasuke!" Emert was on the other side of the bridge with Nora and the other boy. "Jaune, you okay over there?!" Jaune gave a mock thumbs up as he looked down at the ravine and then to the others. Blake flew across Jasper's field of vision and he turned back to the scorpion. "Damn it all!" He pulled his weapon up and howled like a man possessed. "Before I go save my friend I'm taking something from you!" He swung his weapon, much to the surprise of everyone given that he was rather far away from it all. A tendril of violet energy snapped out of the third link in his weapon and shot forward in a wide arc. It caught the Deathstalkers' mandible and with one hard tug, it ripped right off. "If you don't kill this thing before I'm done saving Sasuke, I'm going to rip something out of it again!"

He stormed off after the former Uchiha, slapping the Deathstalker a few times as he did, slicing through armor and bashing in another section of it as he did.

Emert looked down and then to Jaune. "They need help," Jaune told him.

"Then let's do this!" Nora cheered, happy to be having fun. She might not have been the brightest, but she was certainly having fun slaying these monsters. If she rode in on an Ursa then she was clearly either really good or really crazy. Emert was thinking crazy.

"Yeah… but… I can't make that jump!" Jaune confessed. Nora smiled and knocked him back with her weapon as it began shifting from a grenade launcher to an oversized hammer. Once it was finished, she ran forward, despite protest from Jaune, jumped, turned, and slammed her weapon of choice into the end of the bridge, effectively making it a mock catapult that propelled both Jaune and Emert over the gap and towards the scorpion. Nora put one foot on her hammer, pivoted, pulled the trigger, and sailed for the Deathstalker, all while having a smile on her face.

"Smash!" she exclaimed as she brought her weapon down on its face, nearly crushing it into oblivion. When the stinger came down, she pulled the trigger again and propelled herself away, knocking Blake down. She righted herself as she fell and managed to land on the Nevermore, slashing at is as she ran along its back until she was able to join the others. Emert passed by the scorpion uncontested and saw Persia running along the stone pillars.

"Any ideas?" he asked hopefully.

"Hit it till it dies," she confessed in a state of annoyance. What else was there to do on something that big?

Emert laughed loudly as he ran past Jasper and Sasuke. His gauntlet covered fist was pulled back and unleashed as soon as he was within striking distance. An echoing boom resonated through the air and the creature's front leg exploded from behind in a bloom of blood, meat, and bone. It screamed, raised its damaged leg and brought it down on him. Emert proved to be fast and avoided while back hand springing away to safety as Jasper and Sasuke ran in with their weapons. Jasper swung his over his head and dropped it down on its face as he fell from the sky. Sasuke sliced up the damaged leg, hoping to cleave it in two.

A set of silver arrows flew through the sky and struck its face. Sasuke jerked around and saw Persia with her weapons combined into one large bow. Arrows materialized from the white spackles on her weapons. Each show she fired was fast and true; driving straight through hardened armor on the creature and tasting flesh. With each new arrow its movements began to slow, its reactions deadening, until finally it could hardly move.

Sasuke jumped up with his sword poised for a killing stab. It jerked up, alarming the Sharingan user. He braced, landed gracefully on its face and drove his sword through flesh and felt at ease. It roared and suddenly returned to a normal pace. Sasuke held on with chakra gluing him to the surface of its face and his hands on his sword. It jerked its head to the far left and then whipped it to the right. The force threw Sasuke away and sent him sailing for the other side of the cliff where he hit with a resounding thud. Grunting, he looked around from his spot on the wall and noticed that the others were working in teams of four to fight each monster. Ruby, Yang, Weiss, and Blake were tackling the oversized bird while Pyrrha, Nora, and the other two that Sasuke hadn't caught the names of were facing the scorpion. His three companions were facing the oversized pig.

His Sharingan spun wildly as he looked at his team and noticed that the pig was about to start spinning. Its path was clear to Sasuke. He flipped from some seals, brought his handers together and spat a fireball the size of the scorpion at the pig. It impacted and knocked it out of its roll before it could travel towards his companions. The pig was singed, but okay. Grunting, Sasuke flipped through a few more seals as he sat down on the cliff. The sound of birds chirping erupted from his hand as it became covered in lightning. Growling, he dragged his hand along the cliff face and then ran down it. The Nevermore soured within his line of sight and he jumped at it, landing on its wings and dragging the Chidori along its back before jumping as high as he could and coming down on the pig, his chakra infused arm punching a clean hole in its side. The resulting damage was more than satisfying as the hole he created from the force of his attack was roughly as big as he was.

Pulling his arm out, he jumped up and ran along its back as his Chidori sputtered into nothing and ran for his sword. The pig wobbled, but remained upright as Sasuke grabbed it and dragged it through its flesh before jumping off its snot and landing behind Jasper. He readied his weapon and swung it, once more generating a tendril of energy that latched onto a piece of its body. He smiled and tugged, ripping out its eye in gory fashion. This time there was only an enraged scream from the creature. Emert dashed forward and jumped up on its snout and palmed it in its forehead. The entire creature frozen and then its forehead busted open like a coconut. It hauled with such rage.

Emert jumped off and ran backwards as Persia put more arrows in its form. She aimed for the exposed brain and muscle. Her arrows struck and disappeared inside its flesh. It curled up on itself and whimpered. Sasuke and Emert jumped up again and both slammed against the brain. Emert using his gauntlet covered first. Sasuke stabbed it with his sword. Both dug dip into its soft brain. Emert laughed and suddenly there was a beam of red light that erupted from its jaw going into the ground. Emert yanked his arm out, covered in grim and smoke. Sasuke ripped his sword out of it and heard Persia and Jasper call out to them.

Grabbing Emert, Sasuke jumped off and both landed far away as Jasper once again created a tendril of energy. It caught a piece of its brain. He pulled hard and ripped out a chunk of it with a smile. Persia put more arrows into the brain, but they were red this time around. With more empty space inside it, her accuracy was unknown. A loud bang sounded from within and the other eye of the creature exploded out of its socket. It took three steps and then started running at them. Sasuke hissed as he ran as fast as he could for the two. He tackled Jasper to the ground and away from harm. Persia broke her weapon back to its split form and flung one away from the creature. She pulled herself far away and landed beside Pyrrha and her team as the scorpion fell to its death.

The large Grimm stopped charging, turned, and began spinning like a ball in motion. Sasuke appeared in front of Pyrrha as he finished his seals and spat a large stream of fire at the creature. It stopped in its tracks as it was set ablaze again. This time it flopped on its stomach and whimpered. Crouching, Sasuke prepared another Chidori. He dragged it along the ground as he ran towards the creature. When it began to get up, Jasper and Emert knocked it down with a few powerful blows. Persia slowed its movements down with her chain-sickles, leaving an icy touch wherever she hit it. Within range, Sasuke screamed and drove his Chidori home through its chest. He yanked his arm out, jumped to its mouth as he flipped through a few more seals and released a torrent of flames right down its gullet.

Jasper jumped over his head and slashed at the neck where it began to heat up. His weapon wasn't meant for cleaving, but superheated flesh wouldn't stand a chance against it. His weapon cleaved through the flesh and bone and suddenly the Grimm stopped moving and its head rolled along the ground. Sasuke canceled his fire jutsu and gasped for air as his first friend dropped down in front of him with a smile.

"Not bad!" he exclaimed, patting him on the back. Sasuke winced. He could feel something sharp in his shoulder. A stone might have gotten him pretty good when he hit. "That was a smart move to just breathe fire down its throat. I don't think we were going to get it, what with it missing most of its brain and all that."

"How'd it survive with most of it gone?" Emert wondered. Persia shrugged and put her weapons on her back. The others turned and watched as the giant Nevermore was being pulled up the cliff by Ruby and her scythe. When she reached the top, a few more shots were fired and its head came cleave off. Slack jawed and wide eyed, the others all chuckled. Jaune said something that Emert didn't catch and said, "Remind me to never fight that little girl. I don't know wanna fight someone that can run up a cliff dragging a giant bird."

Keeping all thoughts to himself, Sasuke agreed. That was impressive. The group walked to the edge where the bridge had been destroyed and looked to the other team. Jaune gulped. Jasper picked him up and threw him. Nora put the hammer end of her weapon on the soil and propelled herself with the recoil from the gun part as it was fire. The others jumped across or used their weapons to rip them to the other side. Once they were all joined up, they looked to the cliff and Yang asked, "So I guess we climb out way up," much to the annoyance of Jaune. "Oh man up, Jaune. If you're slow enough, you'll see up Weiss's dress."

"Combat skirt!" Weiss corrected, paused, and then added, "And if you look up my skirt, I will stab you," before grabbing hold of the first set of rocks to begin her ascent. Jaune released a low groan as he started climbing as well. Sasuke and Emert jumped up the cliff. Persia flung her weapons up and pulled herself up. Jasper joined Jaune and Nora as they climbed up the side of the cliff. Once everyone was up they all shared a laugh as Jaune was the last one to arrive. "We're almost there," Weiss told them.

Sasuke jumped over her head and into the tallest tree. "What do you see?" Pyrrha asked.

Sasuke looked down at her and then back up. He could see down her shirt. Good view… if he were a pervert. He looked ahead and smiled. He could see the main cliff where they were launched from. He dropped down and pointed ahead. "We're almost there. It's just another kilometer ahead of us." Weiss whined about being proven wrong. "You didn't know where we were. You pointed that way," he informed her patiently, pointing to the west. "We need to go south."

Weiss glared at him. Ruby took the lead with Jaune as they started running for their destination. They encountered no more Grimm. Sad as it was, they were quick to notice that they were not the first ones to make it back to the cliff. Glynda put away her scroll and Ozpin gave them a joyful smile at their arrival. The six pairs presented their artifacts. Ozpin took them and had them write their names down for good measure before giving them all permission to return to the academy to get cleaned up and rest. Sasuke remained behind and looked in the direction of Vale for a moment.

"You can see him tonight once we've selected the teams, Sasuke." Ozpin told him. The former Uchiha nodded his thanks and departed when he heard Jasper called out for him. Glynda moved beside him and gave him a questioning look. "He's worried about his friend, Glynda. It's alright if he goes to see him. He won't do anything to him." Glynda didn't seem to believe him, but wasn't about to argue with him. "Time to go over the battle data and see where they all stand."

(-)

Sasuke exited the shower and shut his eye. A towel wrapped around his waist, he returned to his locker and grabbed his civilian clothing. He was quick to get dressed and huffed once he noticed his headband was inside the locker. He ran his hand over the scratch mark before putting it inside and shutting the door. He found the others all talking and eating in the cafeteria. Jasper waved him over. Sasuke looked to the line where people were getting food and then to his first friend. Jasper laughed and Sasuke rolled his eye as he joined them.

Sasuke caught the tail end of, "…bitten into a few years ago by a dog," from Emert. He pointed to his ear that had the bite mark. "I had more earrings in the other ear but through my training I lost them or got them ripped out." He glanced at Sasuke and noticed that the former Uchiha was looking around strangely. "Dude, seriously, that was impressive. How'd you breathe fire, anyways? That was seriously awesome."

Blinking, Sasuke turned his gaze on the Faunus and said, "It was part of my training when I was younger." He kept his answer short and to the point.

"What about you?" Pyrrha asked Jasper. "How do you that thing with your weapon?"

Jasper downed his glass of water with a healthy laugh as he wiped some of the liquid from his lips. "I use a dust crystal in the center piece. It conducts its power through both ending links so I could use it from both ends. It's the only real ability I could say I have with dust. I'm not that good at using it like Ms. Schnee over here." He pointed to the heiress. She felt proud to hear that, even if it was coming from someone she deemed a barbarian. "I learned how to use it to steal first and then I learned how to use it to rip things off monsters. I could have ripped that Nevermores' heart out of its chest if I had fought it, but sadly I was fighting the oversized pig." He gave a small shrug and laughed when Weiss had a look of horror on her face to his first uses with his ability. "It's not nice where I used to live, lady. It's a messy word out there. For me and my family, it was kill or be killed."

"Still," Blake said sharply, her book now on the table, "using your power to steal is just wrong."

"If it's the only way you know how to live, then it is okay in my books," Persia defended. Yang messed with her hair as she tried to stay out of the argument. Changing conversations, Persia glanced at Jaune and said, "So how the view when you were climbing up?" Weiss glared at Jaune, accusing him of wrong doing.

"I didn't look up your skirt!" Jaune said in mild panic. Pyrrha giggled. "But what do you mean by that?"

Yang grinned. "She's asking if you enjoyed looking down my shirt." Jaune laughed nervously. Pyrrha looked a little ashamed of Jaune and then took notice of Sasuke looking at her. "Pyrrha," Yang called out, "it's not like I care. Besides, you're doing it too. You bend over and you're giving anyone a good view."

"Well I suppose you're right." Pyrrha sighed in defeat. Her clothing was for practical use. Not for over equalization of her form. "Ren," she began, getting his attention. Sasuke noted that the green shirted man was Ren. He hadn't really spoken to him yet or gotten his name until now. "How is your back? You took a pretty hard hit earlier. Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine," he confessed to which Nora happily demonstrated by slapping his back. He winced and looked at her with a hurt expression. "I'm okay until you hit me, that is."

"Sorry," Nora apologized with a high pitch in her voice. She giggled and looked at the others. She pointed as Sasuke's missing eye and asked, "How'd you lose your eye? Was it to a bird? Maybe you were fighting some Beowolfs! No!" She thought for a moment. Sasuke was sure he could see a few gears turning in her head and smoke coming out of her ears as she tried to think of a better explanation. "You wanted to be the cool guy and ripped your own eye out to be the cool guy." She said that in such a low voice, with such a dark and twisted face that Sasuke shivered.

"No," he confessed sharply. "I lost my eye to a fight with a friend of mine during a sparring session. I never really wanted to get it replaced." That was a thing, right? Konoha had medics that could take someone else's eye and shove it into your socket and make it work perfectly. Kakashi was proof of that. No one said anything to challenge him and started talking amongst themselves again. His eye turned on Ruby as she started fawning over their weapons. "You're a little avid about weapons, aren't you?"

Ruby looked sheepish as she pulled her Crescent Rose and hugged it. "I built it myself and fancy all other weapons. So… yeah… I guess I am a little eccentric when it comes to weapons."

"You built that?" Ren questioned. He pulled his own weapons out and looked them over for a moment. "I bought mine from the Schnee Company and then modified their blades on them so that they were longer. That's about as far as my knowledge on these things go." He looked at Nora and then shuddered. "Nora just… well… she got her weapon from her trainer. They just gave it to her when she broke all of the other weapons they had. Said that if she ever broke that weapon, she'd get a new one. She hasn't broken it yet."

"Still trying!" she chimed happily.

Sasuke gave a timid smile before Ozpin came over the intercom, calling all first year students. Sasuke got up and started walking with his hands in his pockets. They all marched into the main chamber where they had all heard Ozpin give his speech the other day. There were more people this time around and from different grades. Jasper and Sasuke were quick to spot Coco and Velvet as they happily waved to them.

"V sure seems happy about this?" Jasper told him in a whisper. He waved back to her. She stopped waving and looked to Ozpin.

The former Uchiha wanted to inform him that she was happy to see them together and probably knew something that they didn't, but kept his mouth shut on the matter. The thought of the teams and how they worked came back to Sasuke and he tried to figure out how it would work. Obviously this was a more simplified method rather than what they had back home. Sasuke was only paired with Naruto and Sakura because he excelled all around while Sakura had the highest grades for all knowledge based tactics and skills. Naruto was the dead last, so they evened out the team by reason that the one who did the worst should be paired with the ones who did the best with the goal that they would work together to fix the others' problem. But this seemed more… choice based than anything.

"Let me be the first to say that your ability to complete your mission was a stunning success. None of you failed to grab and artifact, find a teammate, and come back. Your combat abilities were noted, looked over, and we have decided who to pair everyone with. Though you all already chose who your teammates would be by the pieces your selected, it gives me great pride to announce that one of each member will be the leader of their team." Ozpin could see several faces light up in joy. The students all clapped.

"Now," Glynda took the stage, her scroll in hand, "your leader will be someone that we will feel is capable of leading your teams, making the hard choices, and someone that has shown great talent in commanding and leading their teams already. Some of you worked well together without needing to say much. Some of you came up with daring plans that put you in the greatest of danger. And some of you were able to assess a situation and act accordingly to the tools and skills of your teammates during your encounters."

"So it is with great pride that we call upon you students now to inform you of your teams." Ozpin took a deep breath and began calling them up. Sasuke ignored him and touched his scroll. It pulsed and he could feel Naruto's heart beating. He set it vibrate and felt strength and sorrow in knowing that after today Naruto would no longer be on his team. He would be part of his former team. "Aera Jasper, Robin Emert, Sasuke, Persia Zure… The four of you took the white bishop pieces." The four, upon hearing their names, slowly marched up the steps and took their spots in front of Ozpin. "From this day forward, you will be known as Team JASPER, led by Sasuke." The former Uchiha blinked. Ozpin smiled. "Congratulation son… You earned it."

Jasper slapped Sasuke's back and smiled at his team. The others shared a big smile and moved off the stage as the next team was called. Velvet greeted them and gave them both hugs. "I'm so happy you're on the same team," she gushed. Coco removed her glasses and nodded her approval to the group. "Too bad you're not leading them, Jasper, but I guess Sasuke outdid you."

"I'm a follower, not a leader." Jasper joked. He patted Sasuke on the shoulder and added, "He did all the dangerous stuff anyways. All did was beat our enemies down with my weapon. I beat them all black and blue." He laughed when he heard that Jaune was leading Team JNPR and again when Ruby was announced as the leader for Team RWBY. "Nice to see that our friends got some good leaders too. This is going to fun four years."

Persia rolled her eyes. "I don't share your sentiment, but, it does look like it'll be fun." She clapped when Ozpin finished his speech. "I'm going to bed. They said they'd give us a dorm room now for all four of us." She took two steps and looked back at her team. "If you even think of pepping on me, I will stab you." She marched off. Emert laughed, accepting the challenge and stalked after her. Sasuke and Jasper remained.

Ozpin finished his speech and Sasuke left. Jasper started to follow but Velvet pulled him back and started spouting off things to him. The last he saw of Sasuke for the night was his retreating form heading out the doors.

(-)

The steady beeping of the heart monitor was the only sound Sasuke needed to hear. He sat in two of the chairs that were provided for him as he watched his now former partner sleep in the medical bed. In his left hand he held his old headband and rubbed the scratch mark Naruto had left on it when they fought. He had thought about throwing it away, but Naruto would never let him live that down if he did that. So he decided to keep it and leave it here with him. Ozpin promised him that nothing of Naruto's would be lost.

The door hissed open as Sasuke put the scratched headband on the table beside Naruto's bed. Ozpin walked in with his head lowered. "Why did you make me team leader?"

The door shut. Ozpin looked to the sleeping boy in the bed. "I would like to say I did it to further help you change and make you a better person. I would like to say I'm doing it because I believe this would help you accept who you are. But," he moved beside Naruto as he continued to sleep, "I did it because you were willing to risk your life for your teammates. You didn't order them to do anything. You did what you thought was best to protect them. You knew that Blake couldn't hold the two of you up, so you had him throw you at the cliff. You knew that the Grimm you faced was going to run everyone over and you placed yourself in danger just to stop it and save them. You went to the mouth of the beast and challenged it, knowing full well that you would die if it simply lurched forward and bit you. You did all of that because you wanted to protect them and that was why I made you their leader. I made you there leader because you put their lives ahead of your own."

Sasuke faced him finally and Ozpin could see blood tears falling down his cheek. Sasuke whipped the blood tear away and said, "I did that for them because I never did it for him or our other teammate. I was always focusing on my survival." He stopped and knew he'd lied. "I did do it for him… once. On our a first mission I threw myself in front of someone that was going to kill him and took the shot for him while also beating back our enemy. I lived, but I mocked him for being weak. I told him I didn't know why I did what I did."

"You did it because that's what teammates do for each other. I don't except you to do it every time they're in danger. I don't expect you to be able to save every life that crosses your path. I believe that everyone can only do so much. If you have to watch a hundred people die to save a hundred and one people, then it's a win. Are those numbers wrong from a humane standpoint; yes. But it's the truth. That's a truth you know far too well. I can see it in your eye." Sasuke looked at his blond haired friend as he thought about that. "I'm not going to ask you to look after your team. But you're the leader now. You have a responsibility to be there for them. What's the old saying? Friends are people that come rushing in when you're in trouble? Perhaps you should consider that for a moment." Noticing that Sasuke was more fixated on his sleeping friend, Ozpin took a deep breath before moving towards the door. "You have class in the morning. Do try to not stay here all night."

Sasuke nodded and sat back down. Ozpin left. Sasuke put his head against the wall and shut his eyes. He could see them now. He could see Sakura being happy with them. He could see Naruto being grumpy about standing next to him. And he could see Kakashi with his hands on their heads and a smile in his eye. What were they like now? What was Sakura doing? Was she crying of their loss? What was Kakashi doing? Was he considering himself a failure for not being able to stop this from happening?

His mind drifted for a long time before he finally got up and left. Before the door shut he cast one last glance at the headband on the table before leaving. He wasn't a member of Team Seven anymore. He was a member and leader for Team JSPR.

A/N

And there you have it. Sasuke has a team and he's their leader. Before anyone assumes that I put Sasuke in charge because he's Sasuke and it should be like that, I did that for the reasons above. There as a time when Sasuke did everything for his team. He showed this in his fight against Kill Bee when he rescued Karin from his black flames. So keep that in mind that he does have a heart and right now he's trying to be the better person. The reason that I used Jasper's last name rather than his first is because on his transcript he would have put the name he goes by. So even though it reads Aera Jasper on his transcript, he put his main name as Jasper, and thus, he got that name. Robin Emert didn't fill out the slot and thus will be refered to be both his first and last name. So that's why is their team name is JSPR.


	4. Fire and Ice!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

I suppose I should state that I will be using OC's for this story. For what stories I've seen of Naruto entering this world, he's always with team RWBY. Not gonna lie, I like the idea of doing that, but it's also something that I hate. I have mixed feelings about that and while the idea of using three other OC's is generally kind of frowned upon because they're author created characters, in this case, I kind of want to do it. So without further delay, here is the first chapter for what I hope will be a fic you guys want me to continue.

Chapter 3

Sasuke's eye snapped open and he jumped to his feet as he felt a pair of eyes on him. Persia was staring at him from her spot at the bathroom door, her air still damp from her shower. They shared a quick glance before she grabbed her clothes and disappeared back into the bathroom. Sasuke blinked and flexed his hand. He could feel something hard near his leg and sighed in frustration. Grudgingly he got up and grabbed his clothing for the day. He waited in his chair by the door for his chance to get cleaned up for the day ahead. When the door opened, his eye remained transfixed on Persia's face. She had the decency to look embarrassed about earlier.

"Sorry," she muttered under her breath. Sasuke shook his head and passed her by. She clutched at her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. When a low groan escaped someone else, she turned and saw Emert slowly sitting up, yawning and proudly showing his fangs. He was more animal like than she gave him credit for. "Get dressed," she ordered. "Sasuke is in the shower and then we can get to work cleaning up our room and unpacking."

"In that order?" he joked with another mighty yawn. Her eyes hardened on him. He put his hands up slowly and chuckled nervously. "Someone's angry this morning." He sniffed the air and her face grew red with anger. "Hey! I'm a dog Faunus. I have a good nose. So I know you're bleeding yet."

Jasper awoke to the sound of Emert getting beaten by Persia. When she stopped and stared at him, he blinked and rolled over. "Five more minutes, princess."

"I hope that's not aimed at me," Persia hissed.

"It's aimed at whoever wants it aimed at them." Jasper fell back asleep.

Emert got out of bed and stretched as he looked outside. "The moon is still up. What time is it?" He didn't see a clock anywhere yet. He didn't really care for an accurate time anyways. Time was a trivial thing to him. He was here because he could make a life out of this and not much else.

"It's a little after six in the morning," Persia said sternly.

"That's an actual time?" Persia's face deadened and she glared at him. "I haven't seen six in the morning since I was a baby still nursing on my mom's tit."

Persia gave an exasperated sigh of frustration as her teammate more or less admitted to being a lazy person. At least Sasuke was up without a problem, even if he did see her naked this morning. That was awkward. She wasn't sure about Jasper since he had clearly woken up from the fighting, but his five more minutes comment made her question if he was going to take this seriously or not.

The door to the bathroom opened and Sasuke walked out drying his hair and dressed in a pair of shorts and high collar black t-shirt. Emert nursed a purple bruise on his cheek and faked tears as he ran into the bathroom with his clothes. Sasuke didn't question it. He just accepted that his new found team was going to be a little odd. It wasn't like Konoha where they paired you with people you knew. He'd have to learn their skills, their abilities, and their overall goals in life. As much as he licked reminiscing about his past self, he was going to have to accept that there were some methods that worked better than others, even if you hated them.

"Jasper, wake up." Sasuke ordered. His first friend sat up like a zombie. He smacked his lips and looked for something to drink as he got out of bed. "Once you're cleaned up and ready for the day, we're all going to sit down and talk. As much as I don't like the fact I'm leader of this group, there are some things I do know how to do when it comes to being a leader. So I'd like to at least know what I'm working with since I only know how some of your abilities work. Is that okay?"

"I'm okay with it," Persia confessed with a grunt of disapproval. Sasuke wasn't sure if she was being heated or just stuck up. A woman liked to keep some secrets. If her abilities were one of them, Sasuke would be fine with that as long as it didn't get them killed in the long run.

Jasper yawned as he found some water in his bag and gulped it down. "Can do," he said once he finished gulping it down. He smacked his lips some more and grabbed his clothes for the morning shower. Emert walked out a moment later wearing only his pants. He sported three scars: One across his abdomen, another across his left arm, and a final one across his back. Jasper disappeared into the bathroom.

Emert threw on a black t-shirt and grabbed his pack. He emptied the contents on his bed and looked them over. Persia was doing the same thing. Sasuke put his clothes away. He didn't have anything but clothes. Persia brought books. Emert brought sketchpads, drawing pencils, a small knife, and an eraser. When Jasper walked out he put up clothes, found a spot for a photo of a woman with flowing gold hair, a pretty smile, and standing next to two dogs and holding a cat. Jasper was in the photo behind her with a big smile, along with another woman.

Once everything was squared away they sat down and Sasuke began. "So, I explained this earlier, I'm not much of a leader, but I know a thing or two about it. I've never lead anyone before, but I've been part of a team once before, so I know how the leader should act and what they're required to do. So to start this off, since we're all new to each other, let's get to know each other the only way I know how. Tell us about your hobbies, skills, dreams, and desires."

Emert raised his hand, a stupid grin on his face. Sasuke thought of Naruto and wanted to punch him at the stupid and clearly not needed action. "I'll go first, Leader." It came out as a joke. Sasuke saw it. Persia didn't. She elbowed him and he glared at her. "Can't a guy have some fun? Jezz, totally buzz kill over here." He cleared his throat. Persia shrugged and looked at their leader as if asking if she were in the right. Sasuke rolled his eye. Her eyes softened. Sasuke snorted and she rolled her eyes. "Aside from that," Emert said after watching the quick gesture talk between the two, "I'm a skilled hand-to-hand fighter. I grew up outside the Kingdom's walls and learned how to fight to survive with my family. My hobbies are drawing, sleeping, and martial arts training. I don't have a dream. Dreams are meant to be just that; a dream. And as for desires, I want to become a good huntsman and get my family inside the walls of the city so that we're not sleeping with one eye open at night."

"Is it really that bad out there?" Sasuke asked. He hadn't stepped foot outside their walls since he got here. Ozpin said it was bad. Only the truly brave or crazy did it.

"It's bad," Emert said sadly. "I lost my baby sister to some Grimm last year. I'm the oldest child and my father can't fight anymore. My mother works to feed all five us before I left. I came here because I want to change that and get them here."

Jasper took a deep breath when Sasuke turned his gaze on him. "I don't have that noble of a reason for doing this. My skills are in long-range, close-range, and mid-range combat. Vicious Skewer makes it possible. I have limited knowledge on dust spells, but I'm better at taking hits and returning them than I am running. I'm doing this to be the hero my father wanted me to be. I'm here for the fun, not the glory or the fame. I'd rather be the hero that know no one knows than be rich. My dream is to travel the world and become the strongest fighter ever. As for a hobby, I don't have anything noteworthy."

Persia felt their eyes on her and she groaned. "How about you go next, Sasuke?" she suggested softly.

Sasuke shrugged. He stitched something together before he started. "I'm doing this to find a new life for myself. My old self was a jerk and didn't care about anyone. I'm trying to be a better person. I'm a close-range and mid-range expect with high proficiency in fire and lightning skills. My goal is to be the hero my friend wanted to be before he was struck down. You could say I'm living his life for him. My hobbies are training, fighting, and mastering fire and lightning spells. My dream is to protect everyone I care about with my power. I desire to never see my friends cry."

"That's asking a lot," Jasper said with a chuckle. "But at least you're here for a noble reason as well. I'm still an asshole of this group." They turned on their last member. She sighed.

"My goal is to prove that I'm a capable fighter to my family. I'm here because I ran away from home after I couldn't stand my father's prejudice towards women and Faunus. My mother is a Faunus, so yes, I'm one as well. My father believes all women are weak people that need to only be used for birthing children and cooking. My dream is to see him dead or behind bars for his actions. My hobbies are cooking, training, and reading. And before you even ask; yes, I know that's what my father made me do, but I enjoy it. I'm a long-range expert with my weapons Disrupt and Despair." She turned hopefully to Sasuke. He was indifferent to her plight.

"So we got three people here for a noble cause, two Faunus, someone trying to change their life for the better, someone trying to change their families' life, someone trying to prove to their old man that's he's wrong and a dick, and then there's me, who's only here because he wants to be a hero for fun?" Jasper looked at the group. They nodded and then shared a laugh. "So I'm the outcast here? Great…"

"Don't worry about it." Emert told him. "If I get my parents inside the walls, you can meet my youngest brother. He's a real handful, but you won't be an outcast. He dreams about coming here too and wants to be a hero for fun." Jasper chuckled and gave his thanks. "So now that we know a bit about each other, how about we go get something to eat since we're done putting stuff up and cleaning? I'm hungry and could eat a horse."

"I would pay good money to see that," Jasper commented sharply.

They walked out into the hallway and caught sight of Blake and Yang heading back inside their room. "You girls get something to eat already?"

Yang stopped and Blake got halfway in the door as Yang said, "Yeah we went and got something to eat. We're waiting for Weiss to wake up. Ruby was up really early this morning." Yang yawned. "She's a slave driver right now, but she's enjoying her new role." Her eyes danced to the former Uchiha. "How about you? You enjoying your new role as leader of your group?"

"So far it's okay," Sasuke admitted. He was still uncertain about the choice. Why make him a leader when he might revert back to his old self and ignore them, or worse, leave them to die? He wasn't Naruto, damn it. He would never be able to be that blond haired idiot. "Tell her to take it ease or she'll drive you all insane." He gave a mock wave as he started heading for the cafeteria.

"We'll try that," Blake told his retreating form. She looked to Persia and Emert as their eyes remained fixated on her bow. She narrowed her eyes and shut the door as Yang went inside to watch the antics of her sister waking Weiss. "What are you staring at?"

"Why do you hide it?" Jasper asked. She looked stunned and her instincts to flee screamed at her. "If it makes you feel any better, I knew the moment I caught you reading your book in the middle of the night with no lights on. Plus," he wiggled his ears with his fingers, "not that hard to put it together when your bow is wiggling to every sound you hear. I saw you do it when Ruby came flying out of the air and got t-boned by Jaune."

"And… you're okay with it?"

"He's got us two on his team and he doesn't give two shits," Emert said, receiving an elbow from his female teammate. "What? Neither does Sasuke. We got the golden teammates here. They don't give two craps about us being Faunus. I say that's a win." Blake stilled was tensed up, ready to flee or worse, hurt them. "Look," Emert became serious, his hands in his pockets and his eyes suddenly very wise looking, "I won't tell anyone. If this is how you want the world to see you, fine. I don't care. Just… don't abandon your heritage. That's all I'm going to ask." He walked off. Persia glanced at Blake and gave a knowing nod. Jasper remained.

"Listen, I don't care what you are or who you are. Those don't define who you are. What does define you are your actions. You haven't done anything to make me hate you, but you haven't done anything to make me like you either, aside from saving me and Sasuke when we feel off the bridge. So look, I won't tell anyone either. Just… don't worry yourself too much about us knowing. Other people will find out eventually. Mistakes happen." He put his hands in his pockets and started walking.

"You won't tell anyone?" Blake asked quietly.

"Not my style. Consider it my way of dealing with things or just trying to act cool. Whichever suits your opinion of me, I guess."

Blake closed her eyes, relieved that none of them cared and were going to keep it a secret. She walked inside to hear Ruby blowing a whistle in Weiss's face to wake her. At least they were oblivious to it.

(-)

Sasuke was about to strangle the professor he had. Iruka was boring with his lessons on his history and its deep meaning. Kakashi was a lazy pervert that would show up late to all meetings, pretended to not listen to anyone that was speaking to him, read porn in the streets, always wore a mask, and was arguably the most powerful person in the village. And despite all of those negative things, Sasuke was willing to listen to both men over this fat, self-centered, egotistical jackass of a huntsman.

Teams RWBY and JNPR ran into the classroom and professor Port was slow to acknowledge them. Sasuke was excepting an eraser to come flying up and smack one of them. Sadly, no such thing happened. The fat oaf hardly acknowledged their late arrival and continued his tirade on how he single handedly took down a Beowolf at the ripe old age of nine. Sasuke wasn't sure if he was lying about his age in the story or if he was just making the whole thing up.

"Monsters! Demons! Prowlers of the night. Yes! The creatures of Grimm have many names. But I merely refer to them as prey." He laughed at his own joke. No one else laughed. He chuckled nervously and coughed into his fist before beginning again. "And you shall too upon graduating from this prestigious academy. Now as I was saying, Vale, as well as the other three Kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world. Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces. And that's where we came in. Huntsmen! Huntress!" He arched a thick brow as he looked Yang's way. "Individuals who have sworn to protect those that cannot protect themselves. From what you ask? The very world!" Sasuke had someone scream in agreement in his ear and felt a strong desire to stab the black haired man beside him grow within him. "That is what you are training to become. But first," there was a smile that formed on his face, "a story. A tale of a young, handsome man… me!"

Sasuke banged his head on the desk. _I left Konoha for power, fought my teammate in a death battle, ended up here, and now have to listen to this fat bastard tell us a story about his youth when he should be teaching us?! I should have staying in Konoha._ Port kept telling his story and Sasuke kept questioning whether or not he could truly take the man on. His Sharingan could win him the battle. He was sure of that. This oaf couldn't be that fast and even then, the only person will real speed that he knew of was Ruby. He saw how she was able to close the distance with one blast from her scythe on the scorpion.

"Are you really paying attention to this guy?"

Sasuke cast a sharp glance to his left. A young man wearing the same god awful school uniform was sitting beside him. He had combed back dark blue hair and blue eyes. Sasuke was slow to remember his name. "Sky, right?"

"Yes, but I go by Lark," he said heatedly. Sasuke shrugged. A name was a name to him. He'd call him whatever he wanted. "Are you really listening to this guy? I'm not. He's too boastful about something that can't be done."

"How so?"

Lark gave him a curious glance but played it off. "Have you ever fought a Grimm before the other day?"

"Can't say I have."

Lark tightened his jaw and looked back to make sure the teacher was still ranting about his story and trying to get the message across to the class. Half of them weren't paying attention anymore. "When you kill a Grimm, their bodies turn to ash. So taking back their head or even their skin or fur is impossible. Even a removed arm turns to ash. So his story about taking back their heads is already a lie." Sasuke absently wondered why Lark wasn't calling out the teacher then. Did that mean that Professor Port was just a liar and didn't deserve to teach her at Beacon? "On top of that, most Grimm are impossible to capture. And even if you succeed, it usually ends up dying as a result of being captured."

"Then what's the point in him telling us this story if everything he says is a lie?"

Lark had nothing to that question. Sasuke returned to his thoughts as Lark continued to pester someone else beside him. The end to the day seem far away and Sasuke was too tired to truly do anything more than sit and listen. All his strength was out of him after how late he stayed up last night. His fight had taken a lot out of him and having a nightmare about his brother coming here wasn't helping. The memory of his fight against Naruto haunted as well. Sasuke wondered how Naruto would react to this place once he woke up. There were a few teams that only had two or three members. Would he get placed on one of their teams? It was a real head scratcher. Ozpin promised to do right by Naruto when he woke up.

"I do, sir!" Sasuke snapped from his train of thought at the sound of Weiss's voice practically screaming over the students.

"Well then let's find out. Step forward and face your opponent." Lark whimpered as Port gestured to a beast in a cage. Sasuke gave Lark a hard glance. He might not have been wrong about the Grimm not being able to be contained for long, but to have one on the school grounds and caged was just a little unsettling.

Weiss walked out of the classroom to get her gear and weapon. Sasuke put his feet up on the table. Professor Port launched into another tirade about his youth. Sasuke shuddered at the very mention of the word. Memories of watching Gai and Lee hug each other against an impossible ocean scene by the beach in a gym still haunted him. Truly, that was the biggest mystery of his village. How two people could do that was beyond him. Sasuke was sure that he even got splashed by the illusionary water from the waves during that little moment.

Weiss stormed down the stairs as she arrived, her weapon in hand. Lark made a cat call. Weiss ignored him. Sasuke's Sharingan came to life. He wasn't going to miss this for the world. He hardly got a chance to see her fight during their initiation.

Port took his axe off the mantle and asked if she was ready. With a nod, Weiss poised rapier for combat. With one swing he busted the lock and opened the cage up. A smaller version of the pig that Sasuke and his team fought came charging out and attacked Weiss. She spun out of the way of the small Grimm and slashed at its side. Her rapier tasted no flesh. It stopped slowly, turned to face her. Her team cheered her own. Sasuke watched in mild fascination as she prepared to charge it head on. It jerked its head to the side and used it large tusks to hook her weapon. Suddenly caught, Weiss fought hard to remove the weapon with no luck. She was pushed down and her weapon was sliding along the stone floor.

Weiss huffed as she got up. The Grimm moved in for another heavy blow. She rolled the side. It couldn't stop in time and hit the wall to the desks with a resounding thud. Her team cheered her own. "Weiss," Ruby called out as Weiss snatched her weapon back up, "go for its belly. There's no armor underneath."

"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss hissed.

Sasuke narrowed his eye. That sounded like him and Naruto fighting.

Weiss looked back at the Grimm as it rolled wildly in place before bolting towards her. Her hand moved along the blade of the sword and created a floating array in the air. She took a knee as the pig came crashing into it, the resulting being that it knocked itself silly and was left on its back. Another array appeared behind her and she jumped up to it before pushing off and stabbing her rapier into its gut. It gave a shrilled cry as death took it and it turned to ash.

Weiss huffed and gasped for air as Port congratulated her. "Bravo! Bravo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true huntress in training." He checked a clock and sighed. "I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings. And stay vigilante! Class dismissed."

Turning his Sharingan off, Sasuke stood up. He saw enough to know that Weiss was good. She got a boost of speed when she jumped from array. It was hard to track her, but he saw enough. He got outside first and waited. Weiss passed him. Ruby followed, calling out to her. He watched their heated argument before they both parted. He pushed off the wall and marched towards Weiss.

"You listened to what she said, despite telling her to not order you around. Why?"

Weiss jerked to a stop. Sasuke's one eye was sickening to her. It was an evil thing to her. "I already knew they didn't have armor on their bellies. I've done my research. I know how to fight them. Her telling me that was doing nothing to help me. It only broke my concentration."

"And your other teammates' cheering you on didn't?" Her eyes narrowed. Sasuke did the same. "She's your leader, like it or not, and you should show her some respect."

"Did she send you out here after me? She really is just a child."

"Aren't you a child as well?" Weiss snorted. "I heard your little argument. I'm only curious about why you did what she said after ordering her to stop telling you what to do. I don't care about how you treat her or anything else for that matter."

Weiss glared at him and wished to stab him. The one eye of his… It bore through her. She was sure that he was looking past her and to somewhere else. He didn't seem to care about their conversation. "What I do is my own business and not yours. Go back to your team and leave me alone." She marched off. Sasuke watched her go and snorted.

"No luck with the ladies at all, huh?" Sasuke glanced back. Cardin was there. He remembered him during the event yesterday. He was the leader of team CRDL. Sasuke didn't have much faith in his skills. He heard they saw no combat and Cardin was only elected leader because he got them back in one piece by evading all of the Grimm. "I'll admit, she's a fine looking woman if she didn't have that mouth of hers."

"I don't care about her mouth."

"Funny, I don't either, if you know what I mean."

Sasuke blinked slowly. Killing this man was on his mind at the moment. Rape wasn't funny. As much as he might have enjoyed that happening to him from Sakura or any of his other fans if he was anyone else, he was going to take a stand and say that it wasn't funny and not something to joke about. But, that said, if Cardin wanted to mouth off, he could do that. Sasuke wasn't going to stop him. It didn't affect his team and Weiss was not one of his friends. As far as he was concerned, she was a nuisance and a spoiled brat. Putting his hands in his pockets, Sasuke turned and started walking away.

"You don't wanna go teach her a lesson?"

"I'm not interested in that kind of thing. But if you want to take a shot at it, go ahead. Just be prepared for the wraith of her team and friends."

"I can take them." Sasuke doubted that and kept walking. "I'll see you tomorrow for the matches."

Sasuke groaned. Tomorrow they were doing the sparring lessons. He was happy to know that was happening soon. He could see what everyone could do and gauge them appropriately. "Sasuke," Ozpin's voice sent a chill through his spine. He turned slowly. Ruby was leaving. She must have spoken to him for some time. "I want to talk to you about tomorrow." Ozpin took a sip of his coffee. Sasuke snorted. "I know this is going to be difficult to explain to you, but if you are to fight tomorrow, understand that your fellow students have the ability to withstand a great amount of damage through the use of their aura. You remember that i had it unlocked it for you, right?"

Sasuke blinked and nodded. That was an overly… sexualized moment in his mind. Glynda unlocked his aura for him. He didn't care for it. They explained it could deflect bullets, heal him, shield him from harm, and in time show him his semblance. Sasuke asked why he had such a thing and Ozpin's reply was that all living people had it. Sasuke had yet to use it and had his doubts that what was done to him was beneficial. It didn't help him any in the forest. Perhaps he didn't have one and Ozpin had pulled a fast one over him? He was an old man so it was possible he did something shady like that.

Besides that, Ozpin had a theory that Sasuke's Chakra and their Aura were one in the same, just under different names and a slight alteration of their uses. It was true that aura produced many incredible uses from using ones' semblance to using it for augmented strength and speed. Ozpin was more than willing to demonstrate this by both taking a punch without his aura and then one with it. Same could be said for his speed. Sasuke had watched as the man ran as fast as he could without his aura activated and got from his desk to the door in about five seconds. That time was halved with the use of aura as a augmented source of power. While Sasuke doubted that what was done to him was a real thing, he was shown to have a slight aura, something that could break under the simplest of punches due to him not knowing how to fully manifest it in the traditional means.

Glynda had offered lessons. He refused. Now he wanted to take her up on it if matches were going to be starting tomorrow. He'd cross that bridge when he got there.

"Good," Ozpin put his cane behind his back and smiled warmly at him. "I do trust that when you choose to fight, you remember that it is only a sparring match and nothing more."

"I'll show some restraint," Sasuke promised. He wondered though if he could keep that promise. In a fight, things changed quickly. Emotions ran high. A need for self-preservation would take hold and Sasuke was sure he would slip up. Killing one of these students or crippling them was his greatest fear. Not for them, but for himself. Ozpin gave a slight nod before departed. Sasuke touched his Curse Seal mark and shut his eyes. There was that thing to fear as well. What if it went rampant while he fought? Was he going to be forced to explain that? Ozpin didn't know about it. He saw it only as a tattoo.

Stowing the thoughts away, Sasuke returned to his dorm. Persia was already asleep in her bed. Her lessons were completed and placed neatly on the desk they were provided. Emert was procrastinating by drawing instead of working. Jasper was nowhere to be seen. Deciding that he had a long day, Sasuke turned in and slept until he was awoken by a nightmare. He dreamed Naruto was killed by the Grimm and he was powerless to stop them. He checked his Scroll and saw his heart monitor still working. He was alive. Shutting it, he collapsed back in bed and shut his eye. Sleep did not come for him that night.

(-)

"Welcome to your first day in Combat School," Glynda said to the class. Everyone was dressed in their combat attire. Every first year student was here. The arena was set and medics were on standby in case someone hit someone too hard and hurt them. "Each of you will be fighting today. These matches are in no way linked to your grades or your assigned roles or teams. They serve to only better your combat skills and in time, strengthen the bond you have with your teams. I understand that a lot of you are working with people you have spoken to. You come from all walks of life and different Kingdoms in some cases. With that said, depending on your combat abilities, we will eventually make things more difficult for you by having other members of your opponents team work with them to defeat if you prove capable of the challenge."

"So it could eventually be a four vs. one kind of match?" Sasuke looked for the speaker but couldn't find them.

"Eventually, if someone presents themself with enough skill to do so, yes. I know of at least two people that could have potential take on such dangerous odds and possibly come out on top. I'll let you all think on that one." Sasuke figured he was one of them. He couldn't think of anyone else that might be able to do it. "Now, our first match will be based on volunteers, but if I don't get any I will randomly select you to compete. You will all fight."

"How are the matches won?" Sasuke finally asked. It was bugging him. Obviously he they couldn't fight to the death.

Adjusting her glasses, she regarded him with a light glare. "The matches can be won by way of forfeit, aura depletion, or me calling the match." She pulled her Scroll open. "Do I have any volunteers for the first match?" Sasuke stood up. She nodded. He came down. "Do I have a second combatant to face him?" Weiss stood up, her eyes narrowed on the raven haired youth. "Our first match will be Weiss against Sasuke. Take your places and when I call the match, begin."

Weiss took her fighting stance. Sasuke activated his Sharingan and took his stance. Weiss blanched when he didn't pull his sword out. He took a hand-to-hand combat stance and waited for the match to begin.

Glynda looked between the two and a buzzer sounded.

They dashed at each other. Sasuke proved quicker than she expected and closed the gap quickly. She lunged forward, her weapon ready to spear him. Sasuke juked to the left and tagged her in the back with a well-placed kick. She stumbled, dropped, rolled, and sprang to her feet. Sasuke was on her in an instant and hammering away on her with a furious set of blows that left her reeling. An array appeared in front of Weiss. Sasuke's eyes narrowed as his fist was stopped by it. Weiss flipped and jumped off it. Sasuke growled and ran around it. More arrays appeared in the air. He stopped and looked at them. Weiss jumped up on one of them and then dove down on him. He avoided her thrust with ease but the wall came up too quick and he was surprised that another array had formed behind him.

Weiss sprang up to another one and jumped forward, getting a massive boost of speed in the process. Sasuke juked to the left, but he felt the cold touch of metal on his face. He was too slow to avoid her thrust and his cheek was grazed. He rolled and sprang to his feet. More arrays formed around him. He thought of Haku in that instant and knew pain was coming. Weiss blinked inside the doom of arrays and bolted through him from different angles. Sasuke coughed and groaned. Each time she jumped from an array it disappeared. He waited. Took three more hits and then finally the last one came. He reached up and snatched her out of the air as she came down on him. With an angry hiss he shoved to the cold floor and punched her in the gut. She coughed and yelped like a kicked puppy.

Weiss lashed out with her rapier. At close range Sasuke was barely able to dodge it or see her follow up kick to his shin. He stumbled back two steps and ran at her. She stabbed her rapier into the floor. Sasuke questioned it. His feet slipped out from under him and he cursed when he hit the ground and kept sliding on ice. Weiss had no problem on the ice and slid right to him. Sasuke came to a stop against the wall. She thrust her weapon forward. The sound of metal hitting metal rang out and a look of surprise was on her face.

Sasuke held up a kunai with the flat end pointed towards her. He stopped her blade with the flat side of his own kunai. She was a tad impressed by it.

Sasuke swung his leg out to swipe her legs out from under her. She flipped backwards and slid across the ice with a smile. Sasuke got his feet and wobbled once before he stood upright on it without problem. Weiss came sliding back at him. Sasuke jumped over and landed in the center of the arena. She changed directions and headed for him.

Sasuke smirked.

Weiss thrust her weapon forward.

Sasuke caught her wrist and didn't move when she ran into him.

Confusion had to wait as Weiss felt her entire form get lifted. Sasuke had her over his head with one hand. With one swing he tossed her away and calmly walked towards her. Weiss hit had. She groaned and got to her feet. Sasuke broke into a run. Weiss hissed a curse and formed more arrays in the air. Sasuke came a stop, unsure of what they would do when they were in front of her. The air grew cold. Shards of ice shot out from them and speared the ground around him. Sasuke jumped high and clung to the ceiling with his chakra. Weiss glanced up, unimpressed by his sticking skills and formed another set of arrays to throw more ice at him.

Grunting, Sasuke flipped through a set of seals and took a breath. Her ice flew at him. He shot fire from his mouth. The flames won over the ice and continued its journey for her. Weiss vanished in the flames. Her aura didn't show any depletion due to damage.

Canceling his jutsu, Sasuke wondered if he went too far. Ice shards flew up at him and he dropped to avoid them. Weiss came out of the smoke with two ice shards ahead of her. Sasuke ducked and avoided them. Weiss spun, lowered herself, sprang up and over him, and stabbed at him. Sasuke narrowly avoided each stab, thanks to his Sharingan.

Sasuke grabbed her wrist, twisted it as he pivoted around her and tossed her into the air. Weiss corrected herself fast and formed an array behind herself. She landed and vaulted at him. Sasuke blocked her thrust with his kunai, batting it away and reached forward. Weiss's hand jerked up and punched him in the face. He grabbed her face and threw away once more. Her rapier was the real problem. That hurt. Her tiny fists did little more than tickle him. Naruto hit harder than she did.

Weiss once more proved a capable of fighter and corrected herself in the air. She landed with grace. She spun and created more arrays. Sasuke's ire was growing with each one of them. He felt a desire to call on his sword with each one she created. Ice shards shot out again. Sasuke snorted at them and avoided all by one. He put his foot out and snatched it out of the air with chakra at his feet. The action alone gave Weiss pause. He kicked it into the air and snatched it up. It was cold to the touch and no bigger than his hand.

"Try something different," he demanded while throwing the shard of ice away.

Weiss glared and created another array. Sasuke sighed and waited for ice. Balls of fire spewed out of the array. Sasuke braced and let them hit him, as he was not expecting fire from the array. The flames licked at his form and Sasuke could only curse his luck as he felt his shirt begin to burn. Obviously Weiss wasn't a pervert or she would have tried to burn all his clothes off of him. Either that or she was still fighting like this was a simple sparring match.

The flames died away and Sasuke was glade his shirt was turned to ash. Weiss charged forward. Sasuke grunted and she pierced his chest. Her weapon slid through bone, muscle and soft flesh. A look of horror was plastered on her face. A collective gasp of horror followed from the students. Sasuke winced and suddenly disappeared from sight. His shirt remained skewered by her rapier.

Coughing, Sasuke appeared behind her with only a small puncture wound over his heart. It wasn't deep enough to cause harm. Blood trickled out from his wound. He remained on his feet and a scowl formed on his face.

Weiss flicked her rapier in his direction, throwing his shirt at his feet. Sasuke kicked it away and glared at her. More arrays appeared. Bolts of fire and wind erupted from them. Sasuke jumped high and came down on her. A third array appeared before he could get close and he bounced off it with a thud. He rolled to his feet and felt the chill of cold air hit him. He looked up and spied a dozen shards of ice coming for him.

His mind went blank.

He acted on impulse.

His hand grabbed the hilt of his sword and in a flurry of motion cut each shard out of the air. His Sharingan spun wildly and anger was in his eye. He raced towards her. She created another array. Sasuke disappeared once the first ice shard flew out and appeared in front of her, another shard of ice taking the blow from its brethren.

He slashed.

She screamed.

Reality came back to him. His mind cleared and he watched Weiss hit the ground with a thud. He looked at his weapon. There was no blood that he could see. A red blade would make it hard to notice, but he knew there was no blood. She wore all white. It would have appeared by now. He took a step back as she groaned.

 _Aura,_ he told himself. She had just enough to shield herself from his enraged swing. He went back to his form life in that moment. He heard a whisper from the crowd and looked at his left arm. Black lines were slowly racing down it. He covered his Curse Seal up and willed its dark power away. The match was called and Sasuke sheathed his weapon and left. He scooped his shirt up before leaving.

(-)

"Sasuke," Ruby shouted. Sasuke wanted to ignore her but something prevented him from doing that. He finished putting his bracelet on. He wasn't partaking in any more fights. He was going to forfeit each one until he could better control his anger and the Curse Seal. Did it make him feel that way? Did it strip away his mentality and make him go berserk?

"What?" he asked irritably. Ruby looked hurt by his words. He looked back at his reflection in the mirror that was in his locker. He wanted to try and smile to forget this. The lingering doubt of it working filled his mind.

"What you did out there was incredible." Sasuke snorted. "You stopped Weiss. I didn't think anyone was going to be able to. I know I'm fast, but you adapted really quick to her Glyphs." She was overly proud of that. "She's fine, by the way. Just a bruise. She's a little angry that she lost her first match here. She's wanting to get another one, but Glynda is letting her fight any more today."

"That's good," he said softly. His shoulder still hurt. His Curse Seal was still acting up.

"So how did you do all that? That was really cool how you stuck the ceiling! How did you move that fast? Oh! How did you even spit those fireballs at her? That was so cool!" She gushed each word. Sasuke closed his eye. She read the mood and calmed down. "Hey… Sasuke… are you okay?"

He slammed his locker shut. She jumped a little. "No," he said sharply. His knuckles went white as he clenched his fists. Blood dripped between his fingers. Ruby gasped and reached for his hand to look at it. Sasuke punched his locker. "That… that wasn't me out there." He shook his head. _No,_ he thought bitterly, _that is me. The old me. The me that still exists because I'm still an Avenger at heart._ He punched the locker again and dented it. Ruby took a step back in fear. He sighed and his rage left him. "Sorry," he said with a grunt. "I'm just… it's different for me. I'm not used to…" He stopped and sighed. He walked off. Ruby reached for him as if it would stop him, but he left anyway.

Ruby collapsed onto the bench and sighed. _I hope he's going to be okay._ She took a deep breath and walked back out to watch the rest of the matches.

(-)

Sasuke huffed and puffed as the fight kept playing through his mind. He didn't know why Weiss pushed him that far. He read every single move she made. How she made those arrays or glyphs was beyond him, but it was the fact that she, someone so dainty and weak, was able to push him to a point that he went blank in the mind and reverted back to his old self. The old version that lusted for power and was willing to do anything, even murder a friend, to achieve that goal. It made him sick and he wondered if Naruto would have lost control as well and produced that red aura of his for the fight.

 _I could have handled that better,_ he thought to himself. He knew he could have. He should have left his weapon in his locker and used only his kunai. He could have ended it sooner. All he'd have had to do was wrap her up in his wire and she'd be out like that. But he decided to humor her until he was forced to a breaking point. _Some level of restraint is showed._ He doubted Ozpin would be pleased with what he did. If Ozpin wanted to, he could have him killed or worse, thrown in jail. Sasuke doubted that if came to that, he'd be willing to run.

There was a soft tap of boots on stone. Sasuke looked back. Weiss was on her feet and staring at him.

She glared at him and finally huffed. "That was impressive the way you fought against me. I didn't think my first match would be against someone as capable as you." Sasuke blinked slowly, unsure of what to say. He wanted to mock her. His old self was still there kicking him. She was weak compared to him. Why not mock her? "Ruby said that you lost control during that fight? What do you mean by that?"

Sasuke turned away from her and looked at the water in the pound. Fish swam by and he watched with his Sharingan as each muscle movement was seen before even the fish knew what it was doing. "At the end of the match when I drew my sword I went back to my old self. That version of me is still with me and I'm trying to destroy it. What you fought was a version of me that lusted for power and would do anything to attain it. I shouldn't have drawn my sword. You could have died tonight."

Weiss huffed. "Atlas technology has saved countless lives. People have been bitten in half and still live. There are even people with cybernetic limbs, lungs, even hurts. If you cut me in half, my father would spend all of his money to see me alive again. Believe me, I know he would."

"That's not the point," Sasuke told her. He turned back to her, his Sharingan gone. "I shouldn't have lost control. That was my fault. If you had died it would have meant I slipped up and would have returned fully to my old self. I don't want that. Not as the leader of my team. I can't… I won't use my sword to harm innocent people. That's not who I want to be."

Weiss shut her eyes and sighed. "I came out here to congratulate you on your victory, and you throw it back in my face by saying I would have died because you lost control. That's what these sparring sessions are about: control. You clearly lack it."

"Well then why don't you teach me how to control my anger when I fight, Princess?" He hissed at her. Weiss glared at him. Sasuke turned away, unhappy that he made an insult at her. "I'm going to get something to eat." He put his hands in his pockets as he marched for the cafeteria. Weiss followed. "Why are you following me?"

"I'm not done talking to you."

Sasuke cursed inwardly and started ignoring her. He spied Jasper chuckling from the safety of some shadows. He was not going to hear the end of this tonight. He could already tell. And that made him glad.

A/N

Okay so this chapter turned out a little longer than expected, but after this it's pretty much going to the next episode because I really want to get to Naruto waking up. His moment is going to be fun. At least in my head it is. Also means more fun time with other people. But before we cross that bridge there is one final bridge to cross for Sasuke because Naruto still serves one part before I'm waking him, and that is Sasuke coming to terms with his actions against him and admitting his own wrong doing to his friends.

So funny thing about this fight that he had with Weiss is that when I started thinking about matches since obviously the next one starts off with Jaune getting his butt kicked, ( I went back and fixed it in the previous chapter if you read it before the change took place), they said that it had been weeks, I wondered who could honestly stand a chance against Sasuke and do the most damage to him. I chose Weiss because, between everyone else that we've seen fight, her fighting style is speed, precision, and her glyphs. Sasuke knew about all of that, but not enough to know what she could do. His Sharingan would make almost everyone else easy to beat in my head with the exception of Pyrrha and maybe Dove since he is hinted to be the strongest of team CRDL.

So obviously they've all had time to get better acquainted with each other when the next chapter starts. Sasuke's little moment with his team at the start, pretty much doing what Kakashi did, was to flush out his team more. Jasper is honestly the only one that I wanted to not have a noble reason for coming here. He's like Yang. He's doing it for fun.


	5. His Wrath! Their Fury!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

I suppose I should state that I will be using OC's for this story. For what stories I've seen of Naruto entering this world, he's always with team RWBY. Not gonna lie, I like the idea of doing that, but it's also something that I hate. I have mixed feelings about that and while the idea of using three other OC's is generally kind of frowned upon because they're author created characters, in this case, I kind of want to do it. So without further delay, here is the first chapter for what I hope will be a fic you guys want me to continue.

Chapter 4

It was hard to accept the truth. Jasper knew the truth before anyone else did. It was a sad thing, really, knowing what he knew. How could any of them have been so blind? It was degrading. It was sickening. It was… rather funny when he stopped to think about it.

Jaune was fighting Cardin for what felt like the hundredth time. And like all the other times, Jaune was going to lose. He had only ever won one match and that was against Lark. Lark had some talent, but he tried too hard to be acrobatic and thus was defeated by the simple minded fighting force that was Jaune. After that he continuously lost each match, either by aura depletion or his opponent deciding to forfeit the match because it wasn't worth it in the long run; which, when truly thought about in a more practical sense, wasn't really even a victory for Jaune.

But even with each match he lost against Cardin, Jaune, and those around him, believed that he could do it. He could stand back up and beat Cardin or prove to him that he was a great leader and fighter. But each time, no matter how Jaune attacked, no matter how hard he fought, he always lost. Jasper clung to the belief that just because Jaune lost this match, it didn't mean he'd lost the next one. He was an optimistic, believing that if something were to happen the same way a hundred times, it didn't mean the same thing would happen one hundred and one times. He simply believed that even if something was destined to fall, it may yet rise because it wanted to.

The standing for strongest fighter was easily something everyone was striving for, but only a few had the spot. Pyrrha was at the top of the leaderboards for their grade, followed closely by Sasuke, and then by Weiss. The top three were the only ones that mattered. Yang and Nora were practically rivals after their first match. It was called before both fighters got out of control and ever since, it became a thing of rivalry and hilarity when the two fought. It was like watching two dogs fight over a piece of meat, but in this case it was just to roided out girls with super strength and the inability to be knocked down fighting each other. Same could even said for Ren and Blake, as the two had completely different styles but still somehow always managed to win each match against the other day in and day out. Blake would win one. Then Ren would win one.

Then there were matches where it was designed to test the limits of someone. Sasuke had fought Ruby, Yang and Blake all at the same time. He lost. Pyrrha fought Jasper, Emert and Persia. She lost. Weiss fought against Cardin, Lark and Russel. She won.

Jasper didn't care about his standing enough to want to fight anymore. Once he beat everyone once, he was done with it. It was his thing. Why fight someone that you already beat? Well, his reasoning was that if you fought that person the next day, they wouldn't have improved physically enough to beat him. He believed in his own words and would always stand by them, but it was still the principle of what he believed in.

It made him a hypocrite to be sure, but that was how his cookie crumbled.

And this was also how Jaune's cookie crumbled because no matter how strong he thought he was, no matter how fast he thought he was, he was always going to fail when fighting anyone, even someone as assholish as Cardin.

Sasuke closed his eye and shut his Sharingan off. He saw enough. He'd already seen it enough times to know how each moved played out. He could beat Jaune with his eyes closed. He was predictable and as insulting as it was, Sasuke was constantly reminded of his fights at the academy with Naruto and Kiba. No matter how strong they became, their attacks were always the same. They came charging in, head first right into danger without thinking. It was their tactics. They had no tact for combat. They never thought to look sideways at something. Sure, Naruto proved that he was fully capable of being unique in his fighting style. If one thing didn't work, he tried another thing. If that didn't work, he came at you from a different angle. But his acts were always the same. He couldn't fake anyone out.

Sasuke pulled out his Scroll and looked at the line that was Naruto's heart monitor. It pulsed normally. He closed his eyes and willed away the fear of the other night. Naruto's heart rate spiked. Sasuke grew worried and rushed down to him. Ozpin was informed and met him there. Naruto succumbed to a seizer. It took them three hours to get him under control. They tried sedatives but they had minor affects. Blood work was done on him and it was revealed that his blood actually fought back against the chemicals they put in his body. Anything they put in him was washed away instantly. It made Sasuke wonder why he wasn't on his feet yet or even awake. Ozpin feared that time was running short. If it was, Sasuke wasn't prepared for it.

The lights came and Sasuke put his Scroll away.

"That's enough." Cardin stopped mid swing; though the look on his face made it clear he wanted to crush his head. He could only obey the orders of his teacher, though, and backed off. He wasn't going to openly defy anyone in front of a teacher. Glynda stepped forward and gestured to a display that hovered above both combatants. One had a picture of Jaune with a red flashing line and the other was Cardin with a full green line. "Students," she began, tapping on her Scroll, "Mr. Arc's aura has dropped into the red. In a tournament style duel this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle and that the official may call the match."

Glynda collapsed her Scroll and thought for a brief moment on Jaune's performance. He had a spirit. She'd give him that much. But he never progressed at all. She could easily understand that everyone would get smarter, faster, stronger, as time went on and that the standings would obviously stay for some time in a certain way. Weiss was originally in fourth place with Jasper in third. When Emert had to fight her, he lost and thus the standing changed. But Jaune couldn't advance from the very bottom. Even Lark was show improvements. Perhaps his transcripts were wrong?

"Mr. Arc," she said, coming from her split second thoughts, "it's been weeks now. Please try to refer to your Scroll during combat. Gauging your aura will help you decide when it is appropriate to attack or when it is better to move to a more defensive strategy." Jaune sighed as he took her words to heart and looked at his Scroll. It was flashing red. He sighed inwardly and could feel the disappointed looks from his friends and team. "We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowolf, now would we?"

With a snort of annoyance, Cardin dragged his weapon to his shoulder, muttering, "Speak for yourself," as he ventured off the platform and down to the lockers. He didn't even need to shower his fight had been so lame.

Glynda took a calming breath. That kind of talk was liable to get him in trouble. She knew about his activities and had gone to Ozpin to see if something could be done about it. Ozpin had declined all actions against Cardin under the belief that if no one was willing to come out, then it wasn't worth looking in to. Obviously, Ozpin knew and was waiting until someone was near crippled or someone came to him. Glynda was fearful that Cardin would go too far and cripple someone.

"Remember everyone," she put a happy face, "the Vytal Festival is only a few months away. It won't be long now before students from the other Kingdoms start arriving in Vale. So keep practicing. Those that choose to compete in the tournament will be representing all of Vale."

Sasuke looked between Pyrrha and Jaune and sighed. She was looking at him with worry in her eyes. Jaune looked disappointed and buried himself in his Scroll.

Emert put an arm around Sasuke's neck and laughed. "That was an impressive fight you had against Blake!" he said loudly. Persia glared at him. Weeks of spending time with his team and Sasuke had them all pegged down rather well. Emert was loud, a little crazy, but his heart was always in the right place. Persia was cold, detached, and hated most men. She barely tolerated Emert. And Jasper was a lazy slacker that somehow got good grades. Persia was the only one on their team to go above and beyond the lesson plans by turning in extra homework and spending time with the teachers.

"You never saying anything nice about my fights," Jasper moaned. Emert shot him a look that made him laugh. "What?"

"The last fight you had was against Lark," Persia said sharply. He made a silent gesture as if to say, " _So,"_ to her. She glared. "That was two weeks ago! You haven't fought anyone since then!"

"And you're point? Do you want me to start fighting again? I'll kick everyone's ass." He heard a grunt and looked behind him. Nora was smiling. Pyrrha was looking at the ground, suddenly deep in thought. "I beat you in the first week, Nora."

"Your weapon is hardly fair," Yang hissed as she strolled up to him. It was time for lunch. Like most of their time at the academy, lunch was at different times depending on your schedule. There were second, third, and even a few fourth year students that ate with them. It was really a mix. They were lucky that all first year students got to eat with their teams, but word had it that it wouldn't last. There were a lot of second year students that hardly saw their team unless it was for combat training or if their schedule's lined up right.

"And your monster strength isn't?" he fired back, a playful smile on his face. Yang grinned mischievously as he wrapped an arm around his neck and dragged him down. His face was pressed against her bust. He wasn't complaining. "I'm just saying," he fought hard to escape her headlock, "that between everyone in our grade, you have the most insane strength of us all."

"Well what can I say?" She flexed her arms. "I trained hard to get these guns!" Jasper and Emert shared a laugh. Persia rolled her eyes and moved away from them, walking quickly to get in line. Sasuke sighed. "I'm proud of these things."

"I thought you were proud of your hair?" Ruby inquired as they all got in line to get food.

"Well that I _am_ proud about. It's my most defining feature."

"Sure it is." Emert looked down a little. Yang laughed and emphasized her breasts but pushing them up with her arms. Ruby patted her own chest and wanted to cry. "Don't worry, Ruby. You're the not the president of the Itty Bitty Titty Comity." Jasper hauled with laughter. Sasuke chewed on his lip to keep from laughing. "That one goes to Persia."

"She's gonna kill you~!" Yang sang in a joyful voice between her bits of laughter.

"Are you implying that Ruby has bigger breasts than Persia?" Pyrrha asked, snapping from her train of thoughts. Emert and Jasper shared a knowing look and Emert nodded slowly. Arms crossed and a scowl on her face, Pyrrha took a deep breath before she said, "That would imply that you've been peeking on us in the shower."

"Nope," Emert said in a comically high voice. Sasuke kept fighting the desire to laugh. "See, here's the thing," he pointed at Ruby and then to the front of the line where Persia was getting her food, "Ruby wears a corset. We all know this and think she is adorable for doing so. The pristine fountain of innocence. That said," he pointed at her chest and finished with, "she has no lady lumps unless she is using tape to press them down. Let us not forget that she has openly had conversations about them with you, Nora, Yang, and even Blake. She has, on several occasions, asked when they were going to grow in. Persia, I've see her naked."

"So you're an eavesdropper?" Nora accused with an evil glint in her eyes.

"Have you seen his ears?" Jasper asked, grabbing said ears and making them wag back and forth. Evert slapped his hands away. Jasper laughed momentarily before apologizing. "This guy can hear Nora snoring and talking about pancakes in her sleep. And I've actually yelled and only Sasuke and Emert heard it while outside while I was inside. That's saying something!"

"So you can hear anything we say or do?" Jaune asked.

"Pretty much," Emert confirmed. Jaune had a look of pure delight on his face; like a kid getting the present he wanted for his birthday. "Real pain in the ass is my nose. It's super sensitive. I don't know how my mom manages to work in a full kitchen. I go in there and die almost instantly. Dad is the same. We're not allowed anywhere near it. If we want water, we gotta send one of my sisters."

"So you're like Mogar from X-Ray and Vav?" Jaune clarified with a question. Emert nodded, a knowing smile forming on his face. The two read comics. Jaune was reading the newest one in a library. Emert saw it and the two became good friends. They even caught Pyrrha reading it, though she claimed to not have much of an interest in it. "So what do you think they have for lunch today?"

"Cookies!" Ruby cheered.

Yang rolled her eyes. "I'm not really hungry." Weiss nodded. Blake was already at a table with a book. They could see her watching them with one eye on them and the other on the book. Sasuke passed them and Yang said, "Anything good up there?" as he walked by with a bowel of ramen.

"They got soup," he said sharply. Yang and Weiss shrugged, both deciding to not be bothered with food for the time being. Sasuke sat in front of Blake. She gave him a silent stare. He returned it. She blinked. He shrugged. She rolled her eyes. He snorted and started eating. Blake shook her head and returned to her book. That was their typical greeting. Sasuke wasn't a fool. He knew about her ears. How no one else did, he didn't know or care.

Weiss pulled out a nail file and started cleaning up her nails. She chipped one in her match. Yang put her head on the table and waited for the others. It wasn't a few minutes later that they all showed up. They were having a debate on whether or not eating cookies and strawberries all day was healthy. Ruby was clearly losing the argument she got herself into with Pyrrha. As they sat down, Nora became hyper and started telling a story. Sasuke paid little attention and continued to eat his soup. He caught pieces of it.

"There we were in the middle of the night." She made it sound like a story to tell around a campfire in the woods in the middle of the nowhere, in a place where you were probably going to die if it was a horror movie.

"It was day," Ren corrected, sighing in frustration.

"We were surrounded by Ursa."

"They were Beowolfs."

"Dozens of them!" She stood up, pounding her fists on the table. The whole thing shook and Sasuke watched some of the soup up into the air and then back down.

"Two of them!"

"But they were no match! And in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boat load of lien selling Ursa skin rugs." She sat back down, a big smile plastered on her face.

Ren held up his cup of tea shaking his head. "She's been having this reoccurring dream for over a month now." Ren explained, sighing once more as he sat his cup down.

Sasuke blinked and thought of his own reoccurring dream. It wasn't pretty and it didn't have a happy ending. Everyone died and he was powerless to stop them. He seriously needed to get out more or trust his friends to be stronger than what he thought they were. He wasn't banking on them actually being stronger. Naruto could kick all their asses.

"Jaune," Pyrrha turned towards her teammate/leader and took a deep breath. "Is everything okay?"

Jaune kept playing with his food. He was lost in thought but as soon as he heard his name he snapped from it and responded with a quick, "Oh yeah! Why?"

"It's just that you seem a little… not okay." Ruby tried to think of a better way to put it but came up with nothing. She toyed with her hands as if it would keep her from being able to come off as being timid about it.

"Guys," Jaune started when he noticed they were all looking at him. Blake sat her book down and Weiss stopped filing her nails for this. Sasuke was actually paying attention to this. Persia stopped glaring at Emert to actually look at him with a bit of worry in her eyes. "I'm fine. Seriously!" He put on a smile and gave a thumbs up. "Look!" He faked a smile and whimpered pitifully.

Emert's ears twisted to the sound of laughter. Those that didn't have their backs to the scene glared sharply at the four people doing it. Emert and those that had their backs to it had to turn around and see it. Sasuke turned around and his Sharingan blazed to life. A desire to kill Cardin and his team overtook him, but he calmed himself and took a deep breathe.

"Jaune," Pyrrha started, one eye on the bullying scene and the other on the back of her lead, "Cardin has been picking on you since the first week of school."

"Who?" He faked surprise. "Cardin Winchester?" He laughed and gasped at the same time while looking around. "He just likes to mess around. You know? Practical jokes."

"He's a bully," Ruby clarified for him, unhappy to be forced to watch the scene play out. A bunny Faunus was having her ears pulled.

"Oh please. Name one time he's bulled me?" Jaune put emphasis on the word "bully" with air quotes.

"He knocks your books out of your hands," Ruby pointed out.

"He activated your shield in a doorframe, leaving you stuck for hours." Ren added.

"He shoved you in you rocket propelled locker and sent you for a ride." Emert also added.

Jaune sputtered and laughed. "I… I didn't land far from the school!"

Pyrrha released an exasperated sigh of frustration. She liked Jaune, but damn was he stubborn. "Jaune," she began patiently, "you know if you ever need help you can just ask." 

Nora sprang to her feet, smiling evilly as she flexed her muscles. "Oh! We'll break his legs!"

Emert and Jasper nodded in agreement. Emert already dealt with Cardin when he tried to make a grab at his ears to mock him. He punched him so hard that he was knocked out for about eight hours. And when he made a snide comment to Persia he was suddenly very quiet for the rest of the day. It wasn't really a mystery as to why he was quiet, but it was food for thought for those that got on her bad side. Never mind what anyone else would do. Ruby would probably beat him to death with her weapon. Weiss would stab him or freeze him. Yang and Nora would, as Nora just put it, break his legs. Blake… well no one wanted to test those waters.

"Guys," Jaune got up with a smile, "really! It's fine. Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me. He's a jerk to everyone." Jaune left his team when a small cry of pain came from behind him. He didn't bother turning to face it. He wanted to escape before Cardin turned his sights on him.

All eyes were turned to the sound. Jasper got up sharply but paused when he noticed Sasuke standing behind Cardin. "This is gonna be bad," Emert said fearfully.

That got their attention.

Sasuke's hand snapped out so fast that Cardin barely had time to register the blow and the subtle grab that both crushed his wrist and released Velvet from his hands. Velvet stumbled back and was caught before she could trip. Sasuke held her hand, her lunch tray flying up in the air. Cardin cried as Sasuke tightened his grip on his arm. Bones could be heard cracking. Cardin hit his knees with tears in his eyes. The whole cafeteria went silent. Sasuke took a calming breath and looked at the other three with his Sharingan activated. They tensed. "Stay put," he ordered with a low voice. He hauled Cardin to his feet and threw him into the table. He grabbed a kunai and twirled it around in his hand. "Do you know how many pressure points are in the human body?" Sasuke asked his question very calmly. He sounded like he was talking about the weather. He released his hold on Cardin.

Sasuke waited for a reply.

"Sasuke," Velvet began.

Sasuke glanced her way and his hand sprang to her face. She shuddered as he stroked the side of her cheek. There was pain and anger in his eyes. He turned back to Cardin, awaiting his answer.

"How should I know?" Cardin finally hissed out. He held his arm and rolled over. Sasuke grabbed his shoulder and put his back on the table. Sasuke kept twirling his weapon. The air grew cold. "You're not going to stab me. You're gutless."

Sasuke stopped spinning his weapon around and held it in a reverse grip. He examined the blade before setting it on the table. He smiled and nodded. "You're right. I'm not going to stab you." Victory flashed in Cardin's eyes. Sasuke grabbed his arm and pulled it up. He placed his thumb in the center of his palm and applied pressure. Cardin's head hit the table as he threw it back and screamed. The table cracked and voice echoed in the large room. "That," Sasuke said patiently, "is a pressure point. There are three hundred seventy two pressure points in the human body. Each one can be affected by anything from a simple touch to a minute amount of pressure. This," he applied just a tiny bit more pressure to get his point across, "is a minute amount of pressure."

Doze jumped over the table, his sword in hand. Sasuke snatched up his kunai and blocked the strike. He kept the pressure on Cardin as Dove began swinging furious to get his leader loose. Sasuke flipped his weapon over into a reverse grip and took the back end of the weapon to Dove's palm. The force behind it was enough to send his sword skipping along the ground. Sasuke twirled the weapon forward and thrust it forward. His aim was spot on. Doze whimpered and froze. Sasuke, if he had thrust it any further, would have removed Doze's eye. The point was close enough that Doze was almost certain just breathing would get it punctured.

Pulling his weapon back, Sasuke glared at him before applying more pressure to Cardin's palm. He screamed and suddenly Sasuke turned and started walking. He dragged the man behind himself and when he was close to a wall, threw him head first into it. No one wanted to breathe as Sasuke picked him up by his head and drove his face into the wall again and again until the man was whimpering for release. Sasuke hauled him back to his feet and dragged him before Velvet. He grabbed the other hand applied pressure in the center of his palm. He screamed so loud that Velvet heard ringing in her ears.

"Apologize." Sasuke ordered. Cardin screamed for release. Sasuke grabbed a fist full of his hair and pulled his head back into his rising knee. Cardin went silent for a moment before the pain kicked in again from the pressure point. "Apologize." Cardin whimpered and glared at Velvet. She looked frightened and looked around as if expecting someone else to come out of the shadows and attack Sasuke. Cardin kept whimpering. Sasuke grabbed his hair again and smashed his knee into the back of his head. "If you don't apologize right now, I will throw you in front of her team. I imagine they'd do worse. So do it now or I throw you at them."

Cardin's response was a half howl of pain and something nowhere near close to an apology. Velvet looked fearful. Sasuke closed his one eye and dragged him to his feet. Velvet chased after him. Half of the lunchroom did as well. Sasuke dragged the man behind him until he was standing front of Fox. The man was just leaving his sparring classes and looked ready to a shower. "Fox," Sasuke threw Cardin at his feet. "Has Velvet said anything about a bully to you?" Scarlet hid behind Sasuke. Fox sighed and shook his head. Turning his head just enough to look at her, Sasuke poked her forehead. "Come to us about these things." He stepped on Cardin's outstretched leg. He contemplated breaking it. Fox cracked his knuckles. "You got him from here?" Fox gave a nod and hauled Cardin to his feet. He dragged him back into the sparring room. Yatsuhashi and Coco were exiting when they saw him. They exchanged words and the two looked down at the whimpering first year. They vanished back into the classroom.

Those that followed looked fearfully towards the former Uchiha. Sasuke had a scowl on his face. He touched Velvet's ears and shook his head. "If he ever touches you again," he began. She grabbed his hand and held it tightly. "Velvet, let me know if he does anything like this again. I don't like seeing you cry." She nodded silently. The door open and Cardin came running out covered in bruises. Yatsuhashi jogged over to Velvet. Coco walked over Cardin, a smug look on her face. Fox faked a punch and smiled as the first year flinched and continued to whimper. "Sorry I roughed him up before I got him to you."

"That's fine," Coco said with a laugh. She turned her gaze on Velvet, removing her glasses as she did. "If he ever does something like this again to you, tell us. We're your teammates. I know we don't have lunch together, but seriously, let us know. I'm not having one of my most powerful fighters be bullied by some idiot with an ego." Velvet laughed nervously at being put on the spot. Coco slapped Sasuke's shoulder. "Thanks for looking after her. She's such a sweet person. She doesn't mean anyone harm. He doesn't deserve her sympathy."

Sasuke gave a nod of agreement before he marched back to his team with his hands in his pockets. "Don't be a stranger!" Yatsuhashi called out to him. Sasuke waved and slunk past his friends.

Emert laughed and scratched at his nose. "And that," he said softly so only Blake and Persia could hear him, "is why he's awesome." Blake rolled her eyes. She was impressed, but one good action against a bully didn't make him a great person.

(-)

Ozpin put his hands on his temples as he fought the urge to sigh while going over the reports he was just given. Between the White Fang, an enemy that Qrow was worried about, Sasuke and Naruto's arrival, managing a school and a business that was Huntsman and Huntress bounty board, he was growing worried with new pieces of information that just came in. Grimm were becoming bolder and attacking at the wall. While this was normal, the level of the attacks was growing with each passing day. Ozpin feared for mass panic from the citizens if there was ever a breach in the wall.

The rise of the Grimm activity was probably related to the movements of the White Fang. With each random act of violence they did, a little more the Grimm would appear. They had sent hundreds of Huntsmen to the walls to defend in when a wave came out of nowhere and began hammering away at their defenses. Ozpin didn't doubt that their walls would hold them for the stronger, older, and even bigger Grimm were to make a play at the wall. If that happened there would be mass panic in the streets. It was already astounding the White Fang couldn't utilize the Grimm for their own ends.

Ozpin's Scroll buzzed. Gently he opened it up and skimmed over a report that was coming in. He narrowed his eyes and waited for the call. A few seconds later the call came in. "Hello."

" _What's wrong with him?"_

"Calm down, Sasuke. I'm sure he's fine."

" _He's having another seizer!"_

" _Mr. Sasuke if you would please sit down!"_

That was Oobleck.

"Sasuke, I'll be heading down there to see about him personally. You should stay in class and wait for it to be over before coming down there. Everything will be fine." There was a long pause on the other end of the line. "I'll call you if something comes up. You have my word."

" _Fine…"_

Ozpin took a deep breath as the line went dead. He grabbed his cane and walked out. He prepped a bullhead for flight. His Scroll went off again and he took a moment to read the message that was scrolling across it. Another Grimm attack was coming in. They were about to reach the wall. He pulled the notice down and looked at the first message about Naruto going into a seizer before he scrolled it down and read the Grimm invasion message. He clicked his tongue against his teeth before stowing the item away. He could think more on that later.


	6. He Who Would Move Heaven

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

I suppose I should state that I will be using OC's for this story. For what stories I've seen of Naruto entering this world, he's always with team RWBY. Not gonna lie, I like the idea of doing that, but it's also something that I hate. I have mixed feelings about that and while the idea of using three other OC's is generally kind of frowned upon because they're author created characters, in this case, I kind of want to do it. So without further delay, here is the first chapter for what I hope will be a fic you guys want me to continue.

Chapter 5

Ozpin looked over the reports from the attack with a worrisome look on his face. It was troubling and something was off. He couldn't see the whole picture, but he got enough to start filling in the blanks. The pieces that were missing were pieces he thought might revolve around either the White Fang or Naruto. He was banking on a third party, but currently had no proof other than what had happened to Amber, and Qrow had yet to come back with more information on that incident. Ozpin knew that he wanted more information on what was happening, he'd have to start asking questions and moving forward with any plans he had for the White Fang. But a more immediate problem was in need of his attention. It just happened to side with his desire for more information on why the Grimm attacked the other day.

The meeting he was going to have was small. Only a few people were invited, as only a few people were even made aware of Sasuke's true origin.

To his left, propped against a wall, was a man that smelled of cheap alcohol with a tattered cape, a five o'clock shadow, slicked back hair, and a sideways cross for a necklace. He was nursing a small flask of something alcoholic. Ozpin had yanked him out of Signal for this. This was Qrow, a teacher at Signal Academy and one of the two other people to know about Sasuke's origins. While he had yanked him out of class for this meeting, Qrow had also gone to the defense of the city when the Grimm came charging in. He saw what happened and lived to tell about it.

To Ozpin's right was Glynda Goodwitch. She held a Scroll in one hand and tapped on it furiously. With classes over she was in the middle of grading assignments. She was not pleased with what had happened, as it was her greatest displeasure to fix things that were broken. During the Grimm invasion the other day, a lot of buildings were torn apart and the wall, something that stood as their shining beacon of hope, was smashed by a large Ursa that that was four times that normal size. It took eight Huntsmen just to bring it down. She arrived late and was forced to repair the wall before she could engage in combat with it.

Directly in front of Ozpin was Sasuke. The former Uchiha had his head down and was leaning against a small pillar. He was deep in thought. He kept looking at his Scroll and monitoring Naruto as his heartbeat continued to rise and lower sporadically. They were able to get him stable, but whatever caused him to go into a seizer had left a lasting effect. Naruto's heart was beating at an irregular pace and if it continued, he would surely die. Sedatives were put into him, but they could only take for so long.

With a heavy sigh, Ozpin picked up his Scroll and flipped through the reports. Two Huntsmen were dead. Five were injured. The death count was in the eighties. A small death count for sure, but not one that Ozpin liked or wanted. The people that lost loved ones were accusing them of being failed protectors. They were angry. They had a right to be angry. Ozpin could see no harm in their anger. He would react the same if his family were put in that situation. But there was more than just the damages done. The death count for humans was small. The Faunus death count was high. The White Fang was sure to use this against them and would rally more Faunus to their side, claiming racism and breeding more hatred. It took all of Ozpin's power to turn down James's advances for military intervention. The man was worried. Ozpin knew and appreciated it, but right now was not the time.

Ozpin sat his Scroll down and glanced at the former Uchiha. Sasuke looked back at his Scroll and closed his eye. The heart monitor beeping quickened and then returned to normal. Another dose of the sedatives were being administered. His heart rate would stay at a normal level for maybe an hour.

"Sasuke," Ozpin started softly, "we need more information on Naruto." Sasuke kept looking at the Scroll. Ozpin shook his head softly. Sasuke was worried. He was skipping class right now to be here. After last night's little run in with this, Sasuke wasn't being bothered to go to class. He was too worried to even focus on anything else. "Sasuke," Ozpin said a little louder, "I know you're worried. But I need answers." Sasuke tore his gaze away from the device. "Is there anything else you can think that might be the cause of Naruto's condition?"

Sasuke looked at it again as if willing it to provide something else. "No," he said softly. He shut it, unhappy that it wasn't giving him what he wanted. "I don't really know anything else about him."

"Oh quit the bullshit," Qrow slurred. He wasn't that drunk, but he sounded it. Sasuke leveled a glare on the man. Qrow laughed at him. "My niece's dog has a better glare and he never glares." Put off, Sasuke turned to Ozpin. "A lot of people lost their lives yesterday, Sasuke. And right now, the only lead we have for the attack is the fact that your friend had a seizer at the exact moment the Grimm came rushing in. I'm not one for coincidence, but that seems awfully fishy to me."

"Qrow is right. If Naruto was indeed responsible, even by only having such negative thoughts, then it does warrant some… precautions." Ozpin laced his fingers together. Sasuke looked up to the ceiling. He was deep in thought. "Can you think of _anything_ that might cause this?"

Sasuke chewed on his lower lip. Naruto was the embodiment of joy, hyperactivity, randomness, and thoughtlessness. If there was a negative side to him, it was only though his unhappiness towards those that hurt his friends. He remembered hearing from Kakashi about how Naruto stood up against Neji and took some of Hinata's blood as a vow to beat him up for what he did. Then there was the time that he supposedly yelled at Zabuza. Sasuke found the latter hard to believe, but he was willing to accept that maybe Naruto did have some negative side to him, but it was always justified and always because he felt sorrow for the people around him. His fight with Gaara was proof of that. Naruto wanted to defend Sakura from Gaara. He got angry, but he didn't scream at him. He made his point clear to Gaara. He was going to kill him if that was what it took to save his friends.

Sasuke aspired to be that kind of person.

But his train of thought on the matter did leave him questioning a few things. It made him start to think. How could Naruto recover from such life threatening attacks and get up in an hour? Why did he never run out of Chakra? Why did he have those markings on his face? Then there was the big question: why did the village hate him if all he did was prank people? Sasuke was certain that the village hated him for pranking them, but he did that for attention. If they had given him the time of day, even once, he wouldn't do prank them. He would have been more focused on school.

Sasuke knew little about the clans that made up Konoha, but he knew enough to know that Naruto didn't have a clan and that there never was a clan with the last name of Uzumaki. So the idea of Naruto being from a different village was logical to him. But then there was the odd healing factor. That could easily be associated with a Bloodline or Naruto having some rapid healing that was the result of him _actually_ knowing how to be a medic and just _happening_ to do it without being seen. Sasuke always thought it was because of the Bloodline, as healing arts required great Chakra control, something Naruto had very little of. So that went back to it being a Bloodline.

But the oddities for a Bloodline like Naruto's were strange. Having high speed regeneration ability could honestly be a thing, but still, there was the change in his appearance when put under moments of great stress. His fight against Orochimaru in the Forest of Death was proof that there was something wrong with him genetically. It was the marker for the gift of a Bloodline and while Sasuke had never heard nor done the research to see if someone could have more than one, the thought of Naruto having two had some merit in that regard. His eyes would change color and became slitted; like cat eyes. His whiskers, which Sasuke had always passed off as a clang symbol like Kiba's or Chouji's, thickened and became jagged. His nails grew longer, his canines lengthened and his voice got rougher. When he was like this, his regeneration ability was unbelievable. If Naruto had such a power, why had everyone in the village hated him? Why make someone mad that potentially get up from anything like what Sasuke put him through? That was like poking an angry dog with a twig. It would bite back and probably end you.

So it all boiled back to his antics in the village. He wanted attention since peopled hated him. Naruto hadn't started his pranks until joining the Academy, and even then, it took a while before he even truly got to the level he was at before they graduated. He never did anything but brag about how he was going to become Hokage to the villagers. Before that, Naruto never did anything. He was alone and had no one at his side until Iruka started taking him to his favorite ramen shop. So why did the villagers hate him before he started pranking them?

"I can't…" Sasuke stopped and thought some more. Glynda pushed her glassed up, interested in what he was about to say. Ozpin looked hopeful. Sasuke nodded. "I don't know why he would be a trigger for the Grimm. That one is beyond me. But I know about his upbringing. Some of it anyways."

"Weren't you two on the same team or something?" Qrow gave the former Uchiha a hard look. Sasuke nodded mutely. "So you should know what was up with your teammate. I'm sure you know him pretty well. You were on the same team. You had know stuff about him. It's what makes a team a team."

"Well back then I was different. I didn't care about him or my other teammate. I only wanted power. Naruto was a dead last and Sakura was a weakling with next to no chakra reserves. That was why she could out do us in Chakra Control exercises. I know a few things about him, but they wouldn't help us in figuring out why the Grimm acted the way they did." Qrow snorted and muttered something beneath his breath. Sasuke narrowed his eyes on him. "Look! I'm trying to be a better person. I'm worried about him because it's because of me we're here to begin with. And I'm also the reason he's lying in a hospital bed stuck in a coma! I'll admit right now that I was the worst teammate he ever had. I'll even admit that our whole team was nothing but a train wreck. Our sensei didn't teach either of my two teammates anything. He focused on me. He gave me all the attention when he should have split it up between all three of us. I was the star child. Naruto was the dead last that was hated by our village. And Sakura," he scoffed and ran a hand through his hair, "she was one of my many fan girls that I didn't care about. So yeah! You're right! I should know something about my own team! But I didn't give a shit about them because I was obsessed with killing my older brother for slaughtering our clan!"

There! He said it! He admitted his wrong doing. It hurt. It hurt a lot to face that. Sasuke found it hard to sleep at night once he was placed on Team JSPR. It hurt him. He, the golden child turned traitor, the star child of the village and what it meant to be a shinobi, was a bigger failure than the dead last that was Naruto. And yet, somehow, Ozpin decided to give him control of his team. Make him the leader! Sasuke couldn't stand it. It bugged him. Ozpin knew a bit about his past. He knew that Sasuke had a dark side.

Qrow looked at him with a sickening expression. "You really are a piece of shit, you know that?"

"Yeah," Sasuke replied bitterly. "I know. I was different. I hate what I was back then. Nothing will ever change that. Naruto should have been the one people looked up to. But they hated him for something. I don't know what." Sasuke let his arms fall to his side. He put his head against the pillar and looked back at the ceiling. How did it come to this? "Naruto used to pull pranks in the village. He was hated for it. But I remember the day he joined the Academy. He was hated by our instructors. They put him against me in matches. I won. He lost. Even the simplest of things that anyone could learn was hard for him. But he tried. I remember that. I don't know when it started, but I remember that he pulled pranks a lot after he joined the Academy. His last prank that I remember was him defacing our monument in broad day light wearing an orange track suit with the sun at his back so everyone could see him. He managed to complete it. It was the size of this school almost. He painted all over it and no one noticed until he was done. That either meant he was really good at not being seen…"

"Or no one paid attention to him," Qrow finished. He shut his eyes tightly. That was rough. "So he had a dark past just like you? That might explain why the Grimm would show up. But not in those numbers we faced. Or that big."

"The amount of negative emotion alone to pull in that many alphas and Grimm would require everyone at Beacon to think negatively." Glynda pointed out. Hundreds of Grimm had shown up with at least a dozen alphas. If Naruto was to blame for such a thing, that meant that he was a very dark and disturbed person.

"So he's got a lot of hate or something on the brain?" Having not seen Naruto's fight against Sasuke fully, Qrow found it hard to believe that anyone could be full of so much hate that it would pull that many Grimm. That was like saying Yang was the weakest person in the world to him. He took one punch from her once. He didn't ever intend to let that happen again.

"If that idiot had any hate in him, I never saw it." Sasuke told him. Qrow laughed at the notion of that. "I'm telling you right now that the only time he ever got angry, was when I tried to leave the village. We fought long and hard, but he was only angry with me and was doing everything in his power to drag me back. I think that was when I really noticed how strong he was. He was fighting me and winning." Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Naruto wasn't really angry at him either. He was, but it was more towards Orochimaru. His fists and mind had been only to bring him back. He didn't want to kill him or anything else, really. And then there was that aura that he had. It had taken a form and…

Sasuke blinked and it hit him.

There was the fox aura that had been projected behind him after Sasuke had delivered a Chidori to his shoulder. That was the first time he ever took notice of his healing ability. It healed quickly right before his eyes. Naruto had never been so critically injured before than that it was easy to notice. But that had been a real turning point. There was that and when he dropped him on his head from at least a thousand feet in the air. He was sure he broke his neck! Yet somehow, despite all logic, he got back up and was stronger.

He shut his eye and shook his head. It was impossible. There was no way that could be the reason. How could it? Was such a thing possible? Gaara was a monster with sand. If Naruto had that kind of power… what was his ability with? His clones? Kakashi could that as well.

Ozpin could see the gears turning in Sasuke's head. When the raven haired youth took a breath, he asked the burning question. "You do know something, don't you?"

Sasuke took a deep breath and nodded. "It's not possible, but it could explain a lot about his abilities and perhaps why the Grimm took an interest in this location suddenly when he started having his seizers." Sasuke tried to think of where to begin. The history books briefly covered the topic. He tried to pull it all from memory. Once he had enough of it pieced together, he started. "A little after I was born our village was attacked by a large beast. We called them tailed-beasts. The one we were attacked by was Kyuubi no Yoko. It was a mountain sized nine-tailed fox. It attacked our village one night and was slain by our Hokage who gave his life to destroy the beast. That was also the day Naruto was born."

"But you're thinking it might have been differently?" Glynda asked. She couldn't picture such a thing. Grimm got big. But how big could a nine-tailed fox get that it would be capable of causing any sort of problem. When she thought of a fox, it was a small forest creature that scavenged for food and was covered in soft red fur.

"So how does that relate to Naruto?" Qrow asked, annoyed by an old story. Instead of answering, Sasuke pulled out a paper scroll from his pocket. He unrolled it on Ozpin's desk and pulled out a kunai. The three watched him carefully as he put it on the paper and made it disappear in a puff of smoke. "Okay," Qrow whistled, "I'll bite. What does that mean and how does it tie to Naruto?"

"This is just a theory, but I faced off against someone that had a tailed-beast inside them. It was named Shukaku and it could control sand. Its host, Sabuka no Gaara, was a crazed individual because of it. The way I understand it would be that they put it inside him to make him stronger. In a military point of view, if they could harness that kind of power, they could become something terrible." Sasuke summoned back the kunai. He twirled it in one finger for a moment before putting it up and rolling his scroll up. "There have always been people with unique abilities, much like how the semblance stuff works. My Sharingan is part of this. It's a Bloodline trait given to each Uchiha. There are several clans in our village that possess unique abilities or even clan based abilities that no one else could do; either because they're a clan secrete or because they are linked to our blood. My Sharingan is one such, granting us access to unique and powerful Eye Techniques capable of sticking people in an illusion where the wielder has the power over time, space, and reality, or to setting things on fire with a flame that can last for seven days and seven nights before it's put out."

"You can't actually do that now, can you?"

"No," Sasuke admitted freely. Qrow breathed a sigh of relief. He was more worried about the fire than he was the illusion stuff. "For a while I thought Naruto's ability to heal rapidly was all because of a Bloodline. When looked at from the outside, it would make sense. Truthfully, it still makes sense to me. What I'm talking about doesn't seem possible because I don't know how you seal a creature of power into another person without having that person become unstable or just die. So really, Naruto having a Bloodline that both change his features to make him look more animal like and to give him high speed regeneration makes more sense."

"So you think Naruto might hold this Kyuubi no Yoko?" Glynda asked.

Ozpin leaned back in his chair. "Let's say that Naruto has this power." The three turned his way and listened. "How powerful does that make him?"

"If he does have the Kyuubi in him, it would make him stronger than anyone here. And that would be only if he could access all of its power without problem. I've never seen him go beyond his red aura. Chakra is supposed to be invisible to the naked eye. Naruto was able to make his visible. Normally, that's not unheard of. The Hyuuga clan could project their chakra out and create a protective doom to both block and attack enemies that got too close to it. Having said that, there are abilities that would force the chakra to become visible. Naruto has one attack that does make it possible: Rasengan."

"So much like how aura can work; it can be seen and is mostly unseen?" Qrow scoffed at the lesson he was basically getting. "So does your friend have such a creature in him or no?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. But the method they'd have to use would require someone with great knowledge of sealing arts that I sadly don't if existed in our village. The only thing that would even go against it would be Naruto's whiskers." Sasuke took a deep breath as he put it all together in his head before continuing. "If… by some chance Naruto does have the Kyuubi in him, it wouldn't have given him the whisker marks. Those are things you get when you're born. If he got the Kyuubi placed inside him before his mother died, it would make sense. But there are records that show when he was born and where he was born at. If they're falsified, I wouldn't know. What I do know about him is that in order for him to get into the Academy he had to have someone sponsor him since he didn't have a guardian to let him join. That guardian was the Third Hokage. He gave him access to the Academy and let him join. So the only thing that stands against him having it sealed in him is that. Why send someone that would be unstable, which he never was, to an Academy that teaches you how to kill people? That's asking for trouble."

Ozpin turned his chair around and looked out to the city of Vale. "Perhaps," Ozpin said softly, "there is another option for it. One that would be a bit… darker. Suppose that the Kyuubi is killed. You said Naruto was born the day this monster attacked. Perhaps, instead of Naruto being born, he was recreated by the power of the creature and is it in human form. Could such a thing be possible?"

"That's some straight monk shit, Ozpin." Glynda gave Qrow a sour look. Qrow snorted. "A lot of people are dead, Glynda. If either of these stories held any truth to them, Naruto is clearly a danger to everyone."

"But," Ozpin turned back around, "if Naruto is the reincarnation of the creature, why would he not hesitate to destroy everything in his path for revenge? Why even allow him to exist at all for that matter?" Sasuke could see where he was going with it. "Let's suppose that Naruto, for this one moment, isn't really who you think he is. What if, this whole time, he was playing everyone for the fool?"

"It would explain why his strength grew in leaps and bounds when we became Genin. But that doesn't explain why he also put himself in situations where he almost always nearly ended up dead. I shoved my fist through his body twice. And he got up from that. I dropped him on his head, breaking his neck, scrambling his brains, and most likely cracking his skull open. And he got up. If he was a reincarnation of that creature, why would he not fight the desire to kill me when we were so far out that he could have killed me at any given moment and no one would have thought differently about it? Accidents happen. He throws a kunai at me, thinking I'll dodge and it hits me in the throat. I die. He slams his Rasengan into my hand, tears it up. I bleed to death. I die. He had his chances to end me and never did. So that either means he wasn't planning on killing me or he isn't some reincarnation of the creature. He's either got it sealed in him or it's a Bloodline. My money is Bloodline."

"But the Grimm attack being linked to his seizers seems awfully convincing," Qrow pointed out.

"I think that's us grabbing at straws for an answer." Glynda pointed out. Qrow shrugged. He put his hands on his head chewed on his lip. The whole thing didn't make sense.

"So," Ozpin stood up, his hands on the desk, "what are the chances that this is a Bloodline like you think it is, Sasuke?"

"Honestly? It's higher than it being sealed in him. My Sharingan only forms when I want it to. Naruto might not be aware of his own Bloodline since he didn't have a family to teach him how to use it. Having it sealed inside him doesn't make any sense, given our past. If someone had a dangerous creature living in them with untold amounts of power, would you put them in class with us?" Ozpin clenched his jaw. Qrow and Glynda held their breaths at the image he was putting out for them. "I think this is a Bloodline he's unaware he has."

"Then we'll continue to monitor Naruto until he's awoken. In the meantime," Ozpin smiled as Glynda began to scowl at him, "I believe we should carry on our day and have you get to class. We can't have you missing all those important lessons, Sasuke. Wouldn't want people to get the wrong impression about you as a leader of Team JSPR." Sasuke rolled his eye as he walked out, his hands stuffed in his pockets. Ozpin glanced to Qrow and said, "I know I'm asking a lot from you, but could you keep an eye on Naruto as well for me. There are chances that the White Fang may make a play for him. I'd rather not have that happen."

"You think they might take him because they'll assume he's a Faunus with those whisker marks?" Ozpin nodded. Qrow narrowed his eyes. "You should consider bringing him here then. He'd be safer."

"We can't move him," Glynda explained. Qrow looked at her funny. "We tried to move him once we became aware of how serious the situation was for him. He reacted badly. We touched him and it was the first time he had a seizer. Ever since then, we've been afraid to move him. Now he's having them regularly. We may have to consider moving him here and hope he survives the trip."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there. In the meantime, I believe we have students that need tending to."

Glynda gave a roll of her eyes. She had one more class to teach and she had about ten minutes to get there. She had enough time to get there.

(-)

The moment Sasuke entered his room he felt five pairs of eyes on him. Jasper was lying on his bed and looking at him with a photo in his hand. Emert was in the process of drawing something, but paused long enough to look his way. Persia looked up from her book and squinted at him as if she were checking him over for injuries. Blake was looking from Persia's books and paused when she took notice of the raven haired youth. She was holding a book labeled the Lame and the Wolf. Instead of talking to them, Sasuke retreated to his bathroom and found the door locked. There was a timid yelp from the other side and then the sound of the toilet being flushed. Sasuke backed up and watched as the door parted and Velvet came out with a warm smile.

"Sasuke! I heard you skipped class today. Is everything all right?" Velvet hadn't really left Sasuke's side since the incident the other day. His outburst in class had caused a lot of students to worry about him because not only did he disobey a rule about the use of their Scrolls in class, he also yelled at Oobleck and refused to listen for the remainder of his class. Oobleck was less than pleased and had tried to make him stay after class with Jaune and Cardin, but he had left before Oobleck could even get a word in edge wise on him.

Knowing this his friends weren't going to let him escape this; he nodded and gently tapped her forehead. "I'm fine." Velvet looked unsure. Blake looked ready to leave with her new books in hand. "One of my friends is in a hospital right now and I have his heart monitor attached to my Scroll. Lately he's been having seizers and I've been worried about him."

"I'm sure your friend will be alright," Blake told him. She reached for the door.

"If he was alright, he'd already be up and about. He got dropped on his head from two hundred feet in the air, broke his neck, and got back up fifteen seconds later, perfectly fine." Blake paused and looked at him with wide eyes. "He's been in comatose state for months now. That idiot has had more shit done to him than anyone I know, and he always shrugs it off. He's only in the hospital because of me." Knowing that this was treading on dangerous waters, Blake decided to stay, against her better judgment. She moved beside Persia and sat down, placing the books in her lap. Velvet opened her mouth to speak, but closed it, having nothing to say on the matter. Sasuke shook his head in anger. "It was my fault. We fought. I won. He lost. We were friends and we fought over something stupid. Looking back at it, if I hadn't done what I did, he wouldn't be in this situation."

"So that's why you want to be a better person?" Jasper asked finally. Sasuke nodded mutely. "People make mistakes all the time." Jasper sat up fully. Velvet looked worried. The fear was evident on her face. "V knows the life I had before I met her and her friends at the other academy she attended. My father… my father wasn't a nice person." Sasuke turned to him fully and had an air of disbelief about him. "My father is a known murderer. People hire him to kill others. My mother is a thief. That's why I first learned how to use my powers to steal. V caught me stealing one day, stopped me, and asked me why I was doing it. My parents never taught me that those things were wrong. So I thought they were normal. She changed me."

"We all have a dark past, Sasuke." Blake explained. A part of her wanted to put him at ease about whatever past he might have had. Could she tell them that she was once a member of the White Fang? How would they react to it? "Some of us just can't escape it as easily as others can. It's a curse."

He scoffed at the mention of a curse. He unconsciously touched the seal on his shoulder and shook his head. "I don't think anything you guys might consider dark would amount to the things I did," he mumbled. He took a deep breath and forced a smiled. "It's okay. I'm fine now. Blake, I'm sure you're right. He'll wake up and I'll be reminded of why I didn't like him all that much when we were younger."

"Why would you worry about someone you hate?" Persia asked seriously.

"He's a loud, obnoxious, prank pulling, idiotic, blond with a mouth that doesn't stop moving and a drive that makes even a sane person seem crazy. He gets knocked down. He gets back up. Nothing ever bothered him. Nothing bugged him. Once you have everyone in your village hating you, what else is there for him? He didn't care. He defaced monuments, pranked the teachers, pranked the adults, ran from the law, and caused more school work for us than was needed. If he was out pranking someone, we were all getting extra lessons because if one of us screwed up we all had to suffer." Sasuke paused and considered everything he just said about his friend/teammate. That pretty much summed him up. "Yeah," Sasuke said to himself, "and I want that idiot back."

Emert arched a brow and grinned. "Sounds like a fun person to be around." Blake and Persia shot him annoyed looks. He laughed at them. "Aside from the extra work, he sounds normal. Who hasn't run from the law? Who hasn't pranked someone in their life? Who hasn't been knocked down and gotten back up to get knocked down again? He sounds like someone that just doesn't give up. Not because he can't because of his pride, but because he doesn't want to. I'll turn belly up if I don't wanna fight anymore, but that takes a while. I'm pretty sure everyone in this room will agree that if something is worth fighting for, they're going to fight for it, even if death is on the line."

The other three nodded silently.

Sasuke stared with a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "This weekend… do you guys wanna met him?"

"I'm down!" Velvet said happily. Jasper gave a nod. Emert and Persia both smiled and nodded. Blake looked lost and a little out of place. "Blake, there's nothing wrong with going into town with friends. I'm sure that it nothing bad will happen."

Rolling her eyes, Blake conceded. "I'll go I guess. But I'm not dressing up for this."

"He's asleep. If he wakes up because of you guys, I'll be amazed." There was a timid knock at the door. Sasuke pulled it open and saw the rest of Team RWBY standing in the hallway with smiles. "Did we miss something?"

"We were just curious if you guys wanted to go get something to eat together before we all turn in for the night." Yang explained. She spied Blake and her new books. "Is this where you get your books?" Blake scooped up the books and nodded. Persia arched a brow. "Okay… So we going or what? I'm hungry."

"Keep your panties on!" Jasper joked. He put the photo under his pillow and got up. Velvet felt her Scroll vibrate and she hastily pulled it out. "I'm sure your team is worried about your, V. You should probably head back. Don't want them breathing down my neck." She stuck her tongue out at him. "Or do they want to all meet up for dinner in the cafeteria?"

"They're about to go eat as well," she informed him. "We can all eat together. It would be nice to speak to all of you as a team. Maybe my team can answer any questions you have about what the rest of the year has in store for you." Persia nodded happily. More information was always a welcomed thing. Emert shrugged as Jasper helped him up off the bed. He sat his sketchpad down. He looked at it longingly. "You could bring it with you." Velvet explained. He snapped it shut and shook his head. "Bad artwork?"

"Some people might not approve of the stuff I draw." A mischievous grin was on Yang's face as she ran for the pad. He scooped it up and pushed her on the bed, one hand holding her down and the other holding the sketchpad far away from her. "Mine," he told her with a sinister smile. Yang cooed from her spot and reached to take it. "I'll show it to you if you show me your stuff." He teased her. Yang flaunted her chest a bit. "Not what I was going after." He released her and put his sketchpad away. "Let's go." He hauled her to her feet and shoved her out. Yang protested the whole way. They locked the door to make sure she couldn't get in. Not that it mattered. She could easily bust down the door.

(-)

The moment class started there was something amiss with Jaune. He sat closer to Cardin and looked straight ahead with long, pleading eyes. Sasuke accepted that something happened, but unless Jaune came to him about it, he wasn't going to do something. Or perhaps Cardin had changed? Sasuke doubted it.

Class was over quicker than expected and everyone parted to go their own way. Sasuke left with Persia and Velvet, both opting to walk behind him and chat about something he wasn't paying attention to. Their little group chow fest last night had caused him to have some thoughts on his life and he had been more focused on his goals now than his work. What was he going to do when he graduated? What would Naruto do? When he woke up, what would the idiot say to him? Would they fight? Would Naruto get angry and use that odd power of his? Would he even join Beacon to fight the Grimm? What about the promise Naruto made to Sakura?

The idea of going back home was pointless in the long run. He wouldn't gain anything out of it. They'd be put on trial for their long time away from the village. Sasuke would probably be put in jail and used to breed more Uchiha's. The thought had not escaped him that they would do that. He would be forced to be used as nothing but a sperm bank to breed Uchiha children. How many women would line up to have that honor? It made him sick to think about such things. What would happen to Naruto if they got back? Would he be accused of being a traitor? Their village hated him. Looking back on it, even if Naruto had never pranked anyone, they would still hate him because of those whisker marks and his power. It was like they just naturally hated him.

It wouldn't be easy for Naruto here either. The whisker marks he had would make anyone think he was a Faunus. If someone had one odd feature on them they were accused of being a Faunus. Naruto would certainly fit the role of one. When he was angry those whiskers thickened, he grew claws, fangs, and his eyes turned red with slits in them. Anyone would mistake him for a Faunus here. He would be better off here in the long run. The idiot had the power to change the hearts and minds of people that he fought. Sasuke was now living proof of that. So was Neji or Kiba.

So if Naruto joined Beacon, would he actually focus? Would he actually be a good student? Sasuke doubted it. If Naruto was given a second chance to return to the Academy in Konoha, he'd still blow it. That was his nature. He would prank people and be an idiot. It was just what he was born to do. But given that people would actually get to know him, judge him only for his actions, he might be happier here. The thought of him wielding an odd weapon came to mind as well. Naruto had not talent for weapons outside of kunai and shuriken. Even then his aim for those was off sometimes. Sasuke would admit that Naruto didn't have the greatest of tact when it came to weapons, but he had have a desire to learn and that gave Sasuke pause enough to think of something he could use if he should choose to fight against the Grimm. Would he have to wait until next year to get a team?

Sasuke sighed when he realized he was at his next class. Glynda was talking about their

Sasuke felt someone poke him in the side. Pyrrha was sitting next to him. Blake was on the other side of her. "You okay?" she asked in a whisper. Sasuke nodded mutely. Glynda was unaware so far. Pyrrha wrote something on a piece of paper and slipped jabbed him again. "I heard you're going to Vale this weakened."

Sasuke pulled some paper out as well and wrote something on it. Pyrrha glanced over at what he wrote. "I'm visiting a friend." She nodded mutely. Sasuke wrote some more. Glynda slapped her hand on the desk and Sasuke paused to look at the woman. She was expressing his interest in the first recorded battle with the Grimm. It was something about ancient Grimm and how they acted as private beacons for the lesser Grimm. She mentioned a field trip into Forever Fall next week. "I don't have anything else planned for this weekend. I'm just visiting him."

Pyrrha scribbled hastily on her paper. "I'm going to Vale this weekend to look for more ammo. We should meet up." Sasuke considered that and shrugged. "I know a good café we can visit."

Blake took the paper away and glared at them both. Sasuke shrugged and returned to his previous thoughts.

The rest of the classes went by without a problem and before long Sasuke was back in his room sleeping. The days went by fast and when the weekend came, Team JSPR, Pyrrha, Velvet, Coco, and Blake ventured out to see Sasuke's friend. Velvet chatted with Coco and Jasper about something. Persia ignored the jokes from Emert. Blake stared at the back of Sasuke's head as he led them through the city of Vale until they came to a hospital. The man behind the counter gave a sad smile as the former Uchiha swiped his Scroll and moved for the elevator.

No one spoke for a long time as they headed upwards. They stopped on the top floor and started walking down a long hallway. Sasuke shut his eye and walked the line until he came to a stop at a closed door labeled Room 430. Sasuke gently pushed it open and stepped in. the others followed. Pyrrha shut the door and they circled around the sleeping blond. Sasuke checked his Scroll and looked to see if his heart monitor was in sync with Naruto's. He put it away once he was sure they were synced up and put his hands on the protective railing.

Naruto's hands were bond by leather and chains to keep him from moving during his seizers. An IV bag dripped its contents through the tub and into his arm. He was sleeping peacefully. Blake reached out and touched his cheek, stunned by the three whisker markings that covered his cheeks.

"Is he a Faunus?" Coco asked quietly.

"No," Sasuke answered in turn. He sat down. Emert leaned over the foot of the bed and tilted his head. "He might be… I don't know for sure. He doesn't either. His parents died the day he was born. He was taken to an orphanage and then kicked out when he was five. We went to the same school for a while, became friends, but then we had our big fight and he ended up here." Sasuke took a deep breath and put his head against the wall. "There was a time when I was different. I hated this world and all people. I would have destroyed them both if I hadn't been stopped by him. He called me friend and brother and we fought because I was blinded by my rage. If there was anyone who had a reason to hate the world, it was him. Our village hated him. He did nothing to them and always did everything he could to help them. But they still hated him. If it still stood and we went back, they'd hate him even more. He saved them from a giant Grimm and still they hated him." Sasuke shook his head. It was mostly accurate. Obviously Gaara wasn't a Grimm and the village was probably still standing as of right now, but he wasn't sure. Wars happened every day and every night. People die. Powers shift. Orders fall and new powers rise. It was the circle of life on their world.

"He did all that?" Pyrrha asked in shock. Sasuke nodded softly. "And they still hated him? Why?"

"Because he's different." Blake could feel Sasuke's ire growing. Sasuke opened his mouth and nodded softly as if he were thinking on something. "Our village was always under attack. My brother was strong and I looked up to him. Then he went mad and killed all of our family members. My entire family line is dead now. I'm the last surviving member. I had that happen when I was young. There are nights I fall asleep and can still see him torturing me. He told me to grab power and I did. I was leaving our village to get power by any means and he stopped me. I hated him. I hated our team. I hated our village. And I hated the world. Why did it have to ruin my life? I remember thinking that if I had to suffer, the rest of the world was going to suffer with me. So trained and I fought and I got stronger. But he, the dead last, the one no one would put money on, became stronger than me and I fought him. I still him as the idiot and dead last of our school and even now, looking at him, I hate him because the part of me I'm trying to kill off hates that he got stronger than me."

Pyrrha sat down, her eyes darkening as she looked at the former Uchiha.

"So you were jealous of what he had?" Blake inquired. Sasuke didn't give an answer. He didn't know what he felt. He was angry that Naruto got stronger. He was happy that he didn't know how to use his strength. He was angry that he nearly lost to him. He was happy he didn't get the Mangekyou Sharingan for nearly killing him. "You're a terrible person."

"I know… I deserve it. That's why when he wakes up, I hope he's going to kill me for what I did to him. He has all the rights in the world to it. He can kill me and I'll just accept it. I won't fight it." Sasuke took a deep breath and his resolve returned. "But I'm not keeling over just yet. Naruto, when he wakes up, I'm going to have to probably fight him because he'll be angry with me. He's a very emotional person. He's an idiot that goes charging into battle without a plan of attack and when angered, is someone that even our instructors feared. He has a power that I've never seen before and it makes him powerful. I've never even fought someone that more dedicated to training than him. Naruto would spend an entire day and night training if it would make him just the tiny bit stronger or the tiny bit faster. That's how he is. That's how he always is."

"You sound like you look up to him." Coco told him. Sasuke nodded mutely. "He sounds like a really cool person. I can't wait till he wakes up."

"He should be up now. This idiot survives everything and walks off all injuries. I could stab him right now and he'd heal up in an instant. Believe me, I've seen him get stabbed by some big things before and heal up almost instantly." Sasuke stood up and put his hands on the railing. He released another sigh. "I know that I was a terrible person. I deserved to die and not be saved by him. But he, in all of his wisdom, chose to see me, someone who hated the world, as a brother figure. He never had a family. He doesn't have photos of his parents. Doesn't even know their names. He was born alone. I had a family and I had to watch them all get slaughtered by my brother. I suffered because I had those bonds. And when I tried to cut them with him and the others, he didn't like that. He's never lost anyone close to him before."

Sasuke fell silent and stared longingly towards his friend, willing him to wake up. It didn't work. Naruto remained asleep.

"If you really feel bad about what you did, I'm sure he'll forgive you." Persia told him. Sasuke scoffed. "He's not the type?"

"I shoved my fist through his chest twice and both times he called me his friend. He's more forgiving then anyone we know. You could try to kill him and he'll forgive you. You can try to harm our village and he'll forgive you." The memory of fighting Gaara came to mind and Sasuke shuddered when he also thought about Sakura's retelling of Naruto fighting Neji. "This idiot has the power to change the opinions of others just by beating them up. Some of us just have to take a few more lumps from him. But he'll forgive anything if you're sorry. So maybe he'll forgive me for what I did."

"And if he doesn't?" Blake asked.

"Then he kills me and all is right in the world. Well, except for him being here all alone."

"That's too cruel, Sasuke." Pyrrha looked at him sternly. The former Uchiha barely glanced her way. "Instead of trying to make him kill you for your actions and leaving him here all by himself, you should focus on making him forgive you and staying by his side. Whether you see that as a punishment or not would be up to you." She touched the bed gently and looked longingly towards his fallen friend. "Perhaps he'll be angry when he wakes up. But that is your burden to bear. You will have to make him see the new you in the new light you've created for yourself."

"Pyrrha's right," Velvet said. "If you're friend means that much to you, dying to make things right between you would only make them worse. You should stay by his side to the bitter end."

Sasuke glanced back at his team. Jasper was staring at the blond with a clenched jaw. Emert and Persia looked worried and sad. "So this friend of yours took your fist twice through the chest, right?" Jasper asked suddenly. He pulled the blanks back. Naruto didn't have a shirt on. It made it easier for the medical devices he had stuck to him to be messed with when needed. "He doesn't have any scars. Is healing ability really that strong?" Sasuke nodded mutely again. "So your friend is borderline immortal."

"I dropped him on his head from over two hundred feet, shattering his neck, scrambling what little brains he might have left, and he got back up. I know I broke his neck because I heard it break. I set him on fire. I stabbed him twice with my Chidori. I tried to drown him. I even knocked teeth out of his face." As if to prove how powerful his regeneration was, Sasuke pulled back his teeth and showed that they were all still there. "This is the first time since I've known him that he doesn't get up. I've seen him get stabbed, poisoned, covered in needles to the point he looked like a pincushion, palmed by a guy that could kill you with one thrust of his hand to her forehead, get flicked from here all the way back to Beacon in one hit, something that would remove anyone else's head, and he got back up from all of that. I don't know why he's not up. I wish he was. Because right now, with the amount of crap I'm going through worrying about this idiot, I need him to be awake. I would move Heaven and Hell to bring him back."

Emert nodded and clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "Then move 'em." He said plainly. Everyone looked at him funny. "Sasuke, you just said you wanna move Heaven and Hell to bring him back. I think that's what he's waiting for. Maybe he's waiting for you to move them and bring him back. But you're just not in the right mindset for it. Maybe he's… just waiting for something to happen."

The former Uchiha blinked and thought about that. Naruto was always one to rush headlong into danger. He never cared about himself. His life was meaningless if he could protect someone. He fought and beat Gaara. He moved against the odds of the village and beat Neji. He surprised everyone and beat Kiba. If Naruto was waiting for Sasuke to move Heaven and Hell the way he moved it all the time, Sasuke felt that it would take more than his Sharingan to move it.


	7. The Power to Act!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 6

"Yang?"

"Don't talk to me."

"Nothing bad happened while we were out."

"I said don't talk to me."

"Yang."

"What?"

"You're being childish."

Sasuke wanted to slap the buxom blond, but sadly, he couldn't. Yang was jokingly upset and making sure that Blake understood why she was upset by trying and failing to ignore her partner/friend. Yang was slightly upset to learn that Blake had gone out without them and went with Sasuke and his team, along with Pyrrha, Coco, and Velvet. While no one really had plans for the weekend, they were all capable of doing whatever they wanted and when they wanted. Yang just happened to be a little miffed that she didn't get to spend time out of the Academy and with friends as they visited one Sasuke's friends. Yang understood why she wasn't invited. She never asked and she wasn't there for when Sasuke had asked if she wanted to meet him. Blake was there. Pyrrha had plans in town and they sort of all decided to go along with it. Velvet had dragged Coco along because she wanted to go cloth shopping.

It was funny to look at and know exactly why they were arguing. Yang was pretending to be made and Blake was just rolling with it, smirking all the while and egging her on. In some ways, Sasuke saw himself and Naruto when they were on the same before he fell down the path for power and hatred. They argued, but they got along. Naruto cracked jokes and tried to make everyone happy, just like how Sakura did. But while Sakura was annoying, Naruto held the real battle sense and made things funnier. Sasuke could remember Naruto sticking an explosive kunai up Gaara's butt to weaken his sand control. It was an effective and brilliant and inspiring and stupid. It was sort of how Sasuke saw Yang. If she had been in that situation, sure she might not have done the exact same thing, but she certainly would have done something similar.

For those that had learned the dark truth about Sasuke and his desire to die by his friends' hands, they had started to see him a different sort of light. Velvet openly worried about him and his desires in the long run. Coco didn't voice it, but she held on to some concerns that Sasuke might slip back to his former self. Pyrrha and Jasper had the utmost faith that Sasuke would stay the course of his desired change and become the person he wanted to be, not the person he had to be. His avenger days were over. They saw that in him and hoped that it would stay that way. Persia and Blake became less talkative around him, opting to watch him keen eyes, as if looking for a sign of his dark self's return. Emert remained the same. He was the only one that really gave Sasuke some after thoughts on the matter. His vow to move Heaven and Hell was something he didn't think was possible, but Emert made him believe that such a thing, even a small amount of it, was possible.

Naruto's seizers were now happening every fifty minutes and his strength during each one increased each time. Ozpin had grown fearful that seizures were a sign of something dark brewing within Naruto. But countering the argument for the seizures being linked to the Grimm attack was that each seizure he had didn't pull in Grimm. There was word of them moving towards the wall, but they weren't getting within a dozen miles of the wall. There was no medical reason for why any of it was happening. Glynda expressed concerns for public safety with Naruto and while Ozpin was willing to listen, he was not willing to agree just yet. Naruto's condition was worsening, but not to the point that they were powerless to do anything. Ozpin was riding on faith. Glynda wasn't.

"Well they're having fun," Pyrrha said to Sasuke. The former Uchiha glanced up at the redheaded beauty and nodded mutely. She knelt down and helped him stab the tree so that they could get the red sap out of it. "You ever do this sort of stuff with him?"

"You mean with Naruto?" She nodded. Sasuke thought about it for a moment as the sap began to pour into the jar. They were getting samples for Professor Peach from Forever Forest. Glynda was here to make sure no one died or got hurt since Grimm were in the area. They were ordered to stay with their teams. Jaune went with Cardin. Everyone pretty much stayed with their circle of friends. "We went camping a few times in locations like this. It was part of our training. They wanted us to be ready for anything."

"They made you camp out in Grimm infested areas?" What school on this world did that? That was asking for trouble.

"Yep," he lied.

They did make them go camping, but it wasn't far from the walls of Konoha. They wanted to see if they were capable of living off the land and by themselves. They were ordered to make shelter, find food and water, and survive the weekend. Sasuke scored low on that one. Kiba actually got the best score because he did everything perfectly. It figured that he would be able to since he had a better noise than anyone else. Chouji, Shikamaru, Ino, Sakura, and Naruto all got low grades. Sakura had a hard time finding food while Ino spent too much time making her camp look like a home. Shikamaru was just lazy while Chouji couldn't find food that he deemed edible. Naruto failed because… well… he didn't understand what they were doing. They stuck a bunch of six year olds outside and expected them to survive the weekend. Naruto had no prior training or family members to do that sort of thing with him. Sasuke remembered Itachi taking him on some of his easier ANBU missions. That was why he did as well as he did.

"It was a fun time. Learned to live off the land and such." Sasuke looked around and pointed to a few trees. "Those really big ones wouldn't work for sleeping in. Those ones that have more limbs to them work better. If you make your for in a tree, you wanna have good line of sight on the enemy and protection if they try to come up. You wanna see them before they see you." He pointed to a small cluster of large rocks. "If you're going to make your fort on the ground, you want your back to the wall. Some of these trees have thorns, so you'd rip those down and make your fort with those while you sleep. Anything that comes at you will have to get through that first."

"It would make escape harder," Pyrrha pointed out. Sasuke shrugged. "I suppose in either case, you're fighting with your back against the wall. So it's a matter of preference really for what you're good at fighting in. What would you choose?"

"I'd take the trees. I wanna see my enemy before he sees me." He returned to filling his jar and once he was finished he put it in the box that they had brought with them for their assigned task.

There was a small tussle and three sets of laughs that followed. Sasuke and Pyrrha glanced at the source to see Ruby, Emert and Jasper laughing as Yang got Blake in a headlock. The black haired beauty grimaced as she fought to release herself from the clutches of her blond companion. Seeing that out muscling her wasn't an option, Blake tried tickling her. Yang seized up and yelped as Blake's fingers went to work on her exposed mid rift. The results were instant. Yang released Blake as she was forced to endure the tickle attack by her black haired companion. Blake took a step back, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips as Yang's face turned a deep shade of red. She gently touched her own mid rift and sighed in defeat.

"Why'd you stop?" Yang purred. It was Blake's turn to go red in the face. Yang seized the moment and snatched up her friends' hands and put them on her mid rift. "You like the way my body feels?"

Blake tore her hands away and shuddered. "What works to get to you let go of me is fair game." Yang purred some more. It disturbed Blake. Put off, she returned to collecting samples and not the game of arguing back and forth. Yang sighed and knew she went too far with her practical jokes. "Don't talk to me," Blake ordered, hiding a smile. Two could play at this game.

Yang continued to pester Blake while the others continued their assigned tasks. Pyrrha laughed joyfully to the scene beside the former Uchiha. Sasuke smiled and shook his head. He turned around to get grab he case when something tugged at the back of his mind. He felt a pair of eyes on his form and he stood up normally as thought everything was okay. He put his hands in his pockets and started walking. "Where are you going, Sasuke?" Ruby called out to his retreating form.

"I gotta take a leak," he lied. Weiss made a rude comment about his bodily functions as he disappeared into the shadows. Sasuke jumped into a tree and doubled back. He made sure to not make a sound. Emert and Blake's ears twitched in response, something that went unnoticed by everyone. They glanced in the general direction he had gone but when they found nothing they shrugged and accepted it as a random noise. Sasuke landed behind the people that were watching him and his eye narrowed in frustration. Cardin and his team, along with a terrified Jaune, were lying prone on the ground behind a small hill. Sasuke caught the tail end of Cardin ordering Jaune to hit Pyrrha with an extra jar of tree sap.

Before Sasuke could intervene the blond haired youth spun around and threw the jar at Cardin. Sasuke blinked rapidly as he tried to process that. Jaune saw him. Instead of calling out to him, Jaune just grunted and was dragged off by the angry four men. Sasuke regained his composure, touched his sword and was about to give chase when he felt something growing behind him. He spun around but nothing was there. He looked back to where Jaune had been hauled off. He sighed and went after him. The feeling of being followed didn't stop.

(-)

"You think he'll be like Sasuke?"

Velvet blinked when she read the paper that Coco had slipped her. Professor Port was in the middle of another long winded story about his youth and hardly took notice of their side chat through notes. Ever since meeting Sasuke's friend, Coco had been quite avid about details on the blond. She didn't find him cute or anything, it was just that she was curious about what he was like. Hearing about his life, his abilities, and his actions all made him sound like a reasonably likeable person. Velvet was all for wanting to meet him as soon as he was up if for only wanting to know about the whisker marks at start. But given more time on the matter she wanted to know just about everything there could be about him.

Naruto was supposed to be dumb, hyperactive, loud, a prankster, a comic, someone who never gave up, always got back up when knocked down, and could beat sense into just about anyone. That was pretty much the main outline for any superhero in the comics. They never gave up, probably had no powers or had powers so strong that they were feared for it, were originally hated for something or started out on the bottom as nobodies, and somehow, either through luck, fame, or just because of one random heroic act, became the hero that the world deserved.

His life sounded like it was full of tragedy and heartache. Naruto didn't know if he was a Faunus or not. He had no family of any kind. He was clearly hated for probably his whisker marks. But his heart was in the right place. It gave Velvet pause as she considered whether or not the White Fang might have made a play for him if he was so powerful. Why not take someone like him with what he had done? He could easily pass as a Faunus, even if he wasn't. If those were scars because someone thought they'd be cute and give him those, it was an easy way of making anyone think he was a Faunus.

Making sure that Port wasn't paying attention, she scribbled her reply down. She slid it under her arm to her friend. "He's hyper. So no."

Coco scribbled something down. Velvet read it and suppressed a light giggle. "You think he's funny?"

Velvet checked to make sure Port wasn't doing anything when she wrote he reply down. Coco skimmed it over and shook her head. "He's supposed to be a prankster." Velvet took it back and wrote something else down. "Maybe he's like that to hide his pain of being alone?" That was deep. Coco gently grabbed the paper but Velvet didn't let it go. She put the pen to the paper and took a deep breath. "Sasuke said he hurt him. Do you think Sasuke is evil?"

Coco blinked twice when she read it and leaned back in her chair. Velvet pulled the paper back but Coco snatched it up and placed it in front of herself. Velvet's ears dropped a little in shame. Coco thought long and hard on her answer. Knowing what she did now about Sasuke, it made her think better of him. He was always a little off. He tried to be someone else and now it made sense. He was actually trying to be a better person. That didn't just happen overnight. People struggled with change. Sasuke was a struggling with being the person he was trying to become and forget who he used to be. No matter how much anyone changed, one small act, even something as tiny as procrastinating work, could cause someone to slip back into old habits. If the two of them fought she could see it ending horribly.

But on the flip side to that coin was that if Naruto did wake up, Sasuke might be able to change and be the person he wanted to be and not the person he originally was. Naruto was his source of strength here. He was the person that Sasuke was changing for. He was the person that he wanted to become. No matter how anyone looked at it, Sasuke had done wrong and rightfully bared the blame. If Naruto died, Sasuke would probably revert to his old self. If Naruto woke up, Sasuke might revert back to his old self. There was no telling how the future of Sasuke's mentality would play out until it happened.

She wrote her answer and slid it over to her. "No." Velvet smiled. Coco snatched the paper up and wrote something else on it. "You think he's going to need clothes?" Velvet smiled and nodded. A shopping trip was already in the works for when he woke up.

(-)

Ruby hummed a happy tune as she put the last jar in the box and glanced over at Nora. Her lips and part of her cheeks and chin were red from the sap that she drank. She handed the empty jar back to Ren with a sheepish grin as he handed over a full jar of the stuff. Yang was busying herself by torturing Blake as the black haired beauty could only sigh in frustration to each pun she made. The growing smile was only making it worse for Blake, but she didn't care. This was slowly becoming normal. Pyrrha hummed a happy tune as well while Weiss worked with Persia in getting their remaining sap for Emert. The moment he started getting any of it the smell knocked him on his butt and he was forced to sit back and let them do it, much to his own displeasure, along with Weiss and Persia's displeasure.

"You think Sasuke is okay?" Ruby asked quietly to Pyrrha. The champion fighter looked thoughtful for a brief moment before a loud road echoed through the entire forest. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look in the direction of the roar. "Did you guys hear that?" Ruby asked worriedly.

A moment later Team CRDL minus Cardin came running out of the shadows screaming in terror. Russel bounced off Yang when he collided with her. She grabbed him up as he continued to scream about something. "Ursa! Ursa!"

"What? Where?" Yang asked.

"Back there in the woods! It's got Cardin!"

Pyrrha dropped her jar of sap in fear. "Jaune!" The others nodded. There was no way he wasn't with him.

"Blake! Yang! You two go get Professor Goodwitch!" Ruby ordered.

"You two go as well!" Pyrrha ordered. "There could be more!"

Persia grabbed her weapons and chased after the four. Jasper and Emert looked to each other and then went after her. If there were more in the area they were going to go for the people screaming in fear right now.

Weiss, Ruby, and Pyrrha ran through the forest towards the sound of battle. They made it through to a clearing where Cardin was crawling away. He was covered in cuts that slowly healed. He was about to keel over. Weapons in hand, when the big Ursa took a swipe at him, Jaune's form stood protectively over the man as he blocked the attack with his shield and slashed at it with his sword to drive it back. Weiss drew her weapon and took her stance. Pyrrha raised a hand to stop her. "Wait," she pleaded. Weiss chewed her lower lip and complied.

Jaune lunged forward, slashing in a fanatic fever to kill the creature. It swung a paw out low. He jumped over it but the large Ursa was prepared and delivered a painful blow that sent him rolling backwards on the ground. Not giving up, Jaune lunged at it and took a powerful blow to the back that sent him tumbling forward. He gasped for air and looked at his shield where his Scroll was. His aura was in the red. The Ursa charged him and stood a few dozen feet away. Weiss shook her head and got ready to attack. A strong arm on her shoulder pulled her from her attack. Pyrrha was pleading now.

"If he dies it's on you." Weiss told her quietly.

Pyrrha nodded her thanks and returned to watching her leader face off against the Grimm. Jaune growled and challenged it. Pyrrha's eyes grew wide as she saw him lower his shield and raise his sword arm. The Grimm came down on him with the intent to bust through his shield and crush his head. Pyrrha's hand snapped up and was cast in black. Jaune's shield rose without his will and blocked the attack. He collapsed to one knee and sprang up with it, slashing through flesh and bone in the Grimm's neck. It's head rolled along the ground. Smiling, Pyrrha breathed a sigh of relief.

Ruby blinked as she watched Pyrrha lower her hand. "Uh… what?"

"How did you…?" Weiss paused when she looked back at Jaune. He was unaware of what happened.

"Well," Pyrrha began cautiously. Jaune sheathed his sword and was returning to Cardin. Both teens were unaware of the three ladies. "Ruby has her Speed. You have your Glyphs. My Semblance is Polarity."

"You can control poles?" Ruby could feel Weiss's ire when she said that.

"No you, Dunce. It means she has control over magnetism."

"Magnets are cool too." Ruby mumbled under her breath.

"Where are you going?" Weiss asked Pyrrha.

"Yeah! We gotta tell them what happened."

"We could," Pyrrha told her softly. "Or perhaps we could just keep this our little secret." The two members of Team RWBY thought about it before deciding to agree. If they went to Goodwitch now and explained what happened, Jaune would get in trouble and Cardin would clearly be able to play the victim without learning a lesson. Jaune proved his worth by standing up to the monster at the very least. He was stronger than Cardin was since he clearly didn't stand a chance against it. They caught up to the red haired champion as she randomly stopped and smiled. "How long were you watching him?"

Both looked curious until they felt something drop behind them. Ruby let out a small squeak of surprise when Sasuke appeared with his hands in his pockets. "From start to finish," he told her. Pyrrha clenched her jaw. "He had things under control."

"Were you going to let Cardin suffer?" Sasuke's eye narrowed. The thought had crossed his mind. But he knew that she wasn't going to outright ask if he was going to let him die. "Would you have stepped in for Jaune?" The faintest of grins touched his lips and she smiled at him. "Thanks for looking after him."

"Whatever," he said with a grunt. He walked pass them and stopped a ways away from Pyrrha. He glanced over his shoulder and looked at her with his Sharingan. She blinked. He snorted and motioned for her to come closer. She complied. "Jaune was being order to attack you with the sap. They wanted to do something with bees and the sap." Pyrrha sighed and knew why. She was able to beat back Cardin on every fight they had and proved he was either stupid or racist. She couldn't stand him, but she didn't want to see him die. "I thought about killing him," he admitted in a whisper. Pyrrha shut her eyes. "Why do you think they allowed him to come here? He's not worth it."

"Is that how the old you views him or the new you?"

"Consider it both. Someone like him doesn't need to be here. He said something about reporting Jaune for lying or something like that. I didn't catch all of what he said. Jaune knew I was there. I got behind them and after he was given the orders to throw the jar at you, he turned and threw it at Cardin. He saw me. The old me…" Sasuke shook his head. He could still feel the desire to go back and murder Cardin. Not because he could, but because he just wanted to. Sasuke didn't believe in murdering others, but there was something about Cardin that just made him want to slice the man apart. "I'm still a monster… That won't change."

"You had a difficult life. You're trying to be a better person. Perhaps if you let others in as well, they could assist you in making the change. You took a big step by telling us about your past. Admitting to your wrong doings. But you need to absolve yourself of your guilt. I know you need Naruto for that. So I suggest you simply stay strong and never give up." He chuckled softly. Pyrrha was taken back by his chuckle and laughed softly. "Is that something _he_ would say?"

"Yeah," he said after a brief pause. "He used to say that all the time."

(-)

"Jaune!" Nora cried as she tackled their fearless leader to the ground. He coughed as her shoulder came crashing into his stomach, knocking the wind right out of him and sending him falling to the ground. He groaned as the bruises he got from fighting the Ursa were once again touched and he could only hiss from the pain. Above him, Pyrrha walked in, a sly smile on her face as she passed the two by. Ren eyed her suspiciously, but turned to Nora and their leader as the blond could only moan as she squeezed him with all her might. "I heard you fought eighteen Ursa! Why didn't you invite me?!" She yelled and pouted.

"Umm…" he looked hopefully towards his other teammates and begged silently for help. Ren just blinked and returned to loading more rounds into his magazines for tomorrow's matches. Pyrrha smiled and took her tiny victory over him again. It was bad enough she put more bruises on him for their private training arrangements. Jaune wasn't sure if getting her help late at night was a good idea or a bad one, but if she promised he'd improve, he was willing to listen. It was either that or turn to someone else that didn't know about his problem. "I'm sorry I didn't invite you, Nora. I was sort of… lost in the moment."

"That's okay!" She sat up on him, a big smile on her face. "I ate your pancakes! Consider us even!" She hopped up and marched for her bed.

Sighing, Jaune got up and moaned. He wasn't sure what hurt worse: Not eating Ren's pancakes or Nora tackling him to the ground and reminding him of his injuries. He decided that starving was worse and moved to the bathroom to take a shower. He looked at the few bruises that had yet to heal and shook his head. Those were ones he got from Pyrrha and their training on the roof tops. He still wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do, but he banking it helping him in the end. With students arriving tomorrow, he was going to need all the training he could get to stay on top of things.

(-)

Ingram checked the IV lines to Naruto and shook her head. Another seizer got him and the railing was removed. They were lucky to have gotten a piece of hard wood in his mouth or he might have bit through his tongue and drowned on his own blood. Another doctor was in the room to help monitor him. With seizers coming every fifty minutes they needed to stay on top of him as best they could or he might be lost.

"He's past the fifty minute mark," Oxford told her. Ingram nodded and waited. When another ten minutes clicked by they grew somewhat worried. He hadn't had one yet? He was always spot on with them. Oxford checked his pulse and shrugged. "He's fine… You think he's stable now? Permanently?"

Ingram shook her head and started monitoring more of his vitals. She took his pulse, checked his heart rate to make sure it wasn't out of sync with the machine and scratched at her head. He was now an twenty minutes past due for a seizure. Something was wrong. She checked the states again and then looked at him more closely. His heart monitor beeped and suddenly they hit hard. His body jerked upright so fast that it looked like he had woken up and sat up. He came crashing back down with a yell and thrashed in the bed. The two worked to try and hold him down as more nurses and doctors rushed in to hold him. It wouldn't be long before Sasuke and Ozpin showed up to check on him. School was out for the day.

Just as quickly as it happened it stopped and he resumed peaceful rest. His heart rate returned to normal and he breathed easily. Ingram looked at the other two doctors in the room as a pair of nurses came in with more meds to sedate him. Upon seeing his peaceful state they all shared a glance and then waited. Nothing happened. Another ten minutes clicked by and he did nothing. Ingram and Oxford remained on standby to watch him.

They checked to make sure that any wires or needles that were in him weren't removed or damaged. Ingram checked his teeth and noticed that he had almost bitten through the wood plank they shoved in his mouth. The door was thrown open and Sasuke marched in. He held up his Scroll and looked at it. "He had a small one this time. He was even late to it," she told him. Ozpin marched in a moment later. He jerked his head to the door and the two doctors left. Sasuke walked around him and finished checking on him.

"It was only for fifteen seconds," Ozpin mumbled. He looked over the recordings on the paper that heart monitor spat out. He shook his head. "They're usually three minutes long and this one was only fifteen seconds. He could be getting better." Sasuke narrowed his eye on his former teammate. Something was off about the seizure. Sasuke knew exactly what time each one would happen. The moment it was late he knew something was off. Ozpin had known as well. They looked him over and found nothing. Sasuke sighed and decided that it was a sign of him waking up. "Is that normal?"

Sasuke looked at what Ozpin was pointing at. He pulled the sheets back and Naruto's stomach was covered in a large spiral tattoo with hash markings around it. Sasuke blinked. "I've never seen that before. He was never shirtless around me." He wanted to touch it. There was a low moan and the two looked at him. Sasuke's eye widened in horror. The small whisker markings on his cheeks had widened and become jagged. He checked his hands and sure enough his nails had turned to claws. Sasuke took a step back and looked at him with a keen eye. His Sharingan spun wildly as he checked to make sure what he was seeing was real.

"This looks like…"

"It is." Sasuke put his hand on the bed and looked him over some more. He put a hand on the tattoo and felt something scream in the back of his mind. He winced when he could hear a loud roar from within his own head. He pulled his hand back and sighed in defeat. "This is how he looked when I put my hand through his chest the first time. His eyes were red, he had fangs, claws, and his power grew. I couldn't follow him, even with my Sharingan. I had to awaken it even further than it what it was to be able to even the playing field." Ozpin pulled the sheet up and over Naruto's arms and stomach. Sasuke ran a hand through his hair. "He could be waking up now. This could be a sign that he's coming out of it."

"Are you sure?" Ozpin looked at his Scroll. There was no word of Grimm moving on the city. Not yet anyways. "We're going to have to move him."

"If we do that now we run the risk of him not waking up!" Sasuke closed his eye and sighed in defeat. "Give him two more days. If he doesn't wake up or if Grimm show up, we move him then. Please. This is the closes I've seen him get to waking up. That's all I'm asking."

Sasuke held Ozpin's stare and for a moment the man became some different. He looked like the kind of a man that would send people knowingly to their deaths without a second thought. The feeling and look vanished and Ozpin agreed. "Two days. No more. No less. If Grimm show up, we move him." He put his cane under his arm and started walking out. "I'll get the pod ready just in case. Let's hope he wakes up before then." He marched out the door and Sasuke remained. He examined the tattoo for another hour and touched his own Curse Seal in thought.

 _Come on, Dobe. It's time to wake up._


	8. Awakening Part 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 7

"Team RWBY left for the docks already?" Nora put a finger on her chin and looked thoughtful for a moment.

Jaune secretly wondered if she was planning more odd suggestions for how to spend their weekend. With school out and it being a Friday, no one really had plans for the moment. Jaune knew he was going to get more training time with Pyrrha and that team RWBY was going to the docks to greet the new students that would be arriving today from the other Kingdoms. The whole thing sounded like fun, but as they drew closer to the day of the tournament, he was worrying about whether or not his team should enter. Just having Pyrrha on their team wouldn't be enough when there were people like Weiss, Jasper, or even Sasuke out there that had fought her one on one and stood blow for blow with her.

Nora could clearly handle herself in a fight, if not an entire team on her own if she ignored the rules and followed orders prior to a match. If Jaune asked her to hit them with her hammer, she was more than willing to go through anything to hit anyone with her hammer. And then they had Ren, who might as well be a comic book ninja with how he fought, who could stand up against Blake, Emert, Persia, and on rare occasions Yang. Jaune couldn't beat anyone anymore. Lark had passed him up and was beating him now. Cardin was way above him. So he doubted that all three of them could actually carry his dead weight around if they had to fight.

Dressed in normal clothes for a change, Jaune hummed silently to himself before standing up. Going out into Vale didn't sound like a bad idea. He wanted to see this café that Pyrrha had mentioned earlier that week before everything went down with Cardin. He checked himself in the mirror and tugged at the dark brown button up shirt he was wearing. He wore jeans with no holes in the knees for a change. "How about we go into town?" he suggest. Nora jumped from the bed to the floor without moving. She started rambling off things they could do and places they could see. Pyrrha gave him a curious glance. "We hardly go out. We might as well have some fun before the new students arrive."

"It would be nice to get out of the Academy for a bit," Ren agreed. Nora made her demands known, making the vote three to one so far. Pyrrha smiled and agreed. Ren grabbed some cloths and retreated to the bathroom. He returned wearing a green button up shirt and blue jeans. He was in the middle of tucking his shirt in when Nora bolted past him and came back wearing a black shirt with the wood "Boop" on it in pink. She pulled a pair of headphones around her neck and then threw on some cream colored cargo shorts. Shaking his head, Ren was at her mercy when she lightly tapped his forehead and smiled. "I still don't think that's what a sloth sounds like," he told her, referring to her idea of a code word/sound.

Pyrrha returned from getting dressed wearing a brown blouse and knee length black skirt. She let her hair down and removed her circlet for the day. With a red purse hung over her shoulder and a few touches from makeup, it was hard to believe that she could go from a prestigious warrior all the way to a business woman with a warm smile. Jaune felt less threatened by this version of her than he did the other one that he knew could throw him from one end of the hallway to the other without even trying.

"So what did you want to do today?" Pyrrha asked. Jaune shrugged. Pyrrha pursed her lips and thought about what they could do in town. She smiled when a thought hit her. "I think I know something we can do. It'll be fun."

"Café?" Ren asked hopefully.

"We can go there after we go to the place I have in mind." Ren gave her a slight nod. Nora cheered and grabbed up her purse. Jaune grabbed his wallet and stuck it in his back pocket. Pyrrha got the door for the door and walked out last. She locked it and walked beside Jaune and Ren chased after an excided Nora. "Jaune, how have your injuries healed up? Will you be ready for tonight?" She kept her voice down.

Jaune rubbed his arms as the ache in his biceps kicked in again. Aside from actual combat training, Pyrrha wanted him to get his upper body strength up and his endurance. She made him do pushups, squats, sit ups, and rope battle. Rope battle was not what he thought it was and was more draining than doing the other things. He had to slam a large rope on the ground as many times as he could and as hard as he could for twenty seconds. He could hardly last fifteen with how heavy it was and how fast he usually did it. Still, if Pyrrha said the pain was proof of his growth, he wasn't complaining. Not yet anyways.

"I'll be ready." He told her.

She smiled and walked a little closer to him. Jaune thought nothing of it. Pyrrha thought more of it and wondered if grabbing his hand would be the best move. With Weiss always on his mind it was hard for her to place herself anywhere around him. He didn't treat her like most others did. In fact, he was nicer and saw her simply as Pyrrha Nikkos, a girl that was going to Beacon Academy to be a Huntress and not some almighty warrior that won every fight she got in to.

"Do you think the others will want to go with us?" Jaune asked her.

Pyrrha snapped from her daydreams to think on the questions. Persia was too tired from their matches yesterday to do anything. She fought against Weiss and lost. Emert was off in town somewhere already and said he was getting something special he hadn't thought he needed. Whatever he was getting was supposed to be his weapon. Pyrrha found it hard to believe that he didn't actually bring his weapon with him to the Academy, but given his own style of combat, whatever his weapon was would certainly not make much of a difference. Jasper was spending time with Velvet and Coco, so he was a no go. Sasuke was already back at the hospital visiting Naruto. So with everyone really gone, it would be just them.

"I don't think they would. Besides," she moved in front of him, a big grin on her face, "Team RWBY is at the docks greeting the new students that are coming in for the Vytal Festival. We could always go visit them and see what they turn up…?" She didn't want to greet them. She knew deep down why they went to the docks. Weiss wanted to spy on their competition before the tournament started. It wasn't a bad tactic, just one that Pyrrha didn't much care for. "Or…" she started, getting his interest peeked, "we could go and see some of the weapon shops and try to get wooden sword to fight with, that way we're not coming home with bruises that look like cut marks."

"I think I'd like that," he told her a little too quickly. Pyrrha took things slow in their training time. She didn't move too fast and she didn't hit nearly as hard. She shoved him down and on moments where he froze on the spot felt the cold taste of her blade on his flesh. She was pushing him hard to find his Semblance and master his aura. Pyrrha believed it wouldn't be long before he found it. He hoped so. "But if we do that, I wanna go to the comic book store. Tukson Books is supposed to have the newest comic of X-Ray and Vav and really want to get it."

"Fair enough," she slapped his shoulder and started marching for the others. Best they meet up with them before Nora got a wild idea and started rumors again.

The trip into town was short and sweet. Nora babbled on about the things she wanted to do, hoped to do, and believed they would do. Ren listened in perfect silence. When Nora stopped to a take a breath every few minutes he replied with a slight nod, a shake of his head, or a small hmm as he thought about what she was requesting or thinking. When they got to the Vale the city was already throwing up decoration for the festival. It would be another few weeks before anything really happened. Other teachers were already started to show up to get their classes ready for the students when they showed up.

True to her word, they visited the book store first. Tukson Book Trade wasn't that busy today. It only had a few people browsing today. Ren went for the books on mythology and when he didn't turn up anything he wanted he went to the fantasy section to try and find something he might like. Nora started looking for cooking books to look at the pictures they had of completed dishes.

"Can I help you find something," Tukson asked when he caught Jaune looking through the comics.

Putting the one he was looking at up, Jaune laughed nervously as he tried to find Pyrrha. She was looking at more books on fighting styles with Ren. "I'm looking for the new X-Ray and Vav comic." Tukson chuckled and went into the back. He came back with the comic in hand. "Did it just come in?"

"I got it last week. I just happened to sell out of it almost instantly." He looked sheepish as he moved back to the counter. Jaune skimmed over the comic and then placed it on the counter to pay for it. "They're really hitting it off now." Tukson told him. "I think after the last comic they had it really picked up. I mean, heroes without using Dust or Semblance? It's branching out there."

"You think we'd ever get to that level of technology?"

Tukson looked thoughtful for a moment and nodded. "I think we could reach that technology eventually. I kind of wish they had more people like Mogar out there. He's my favorite."

"Maybe in the next arc," Jaune told him. Tukson nodded as he rang it up. Jaune paid for the comic and looked to his team. Nora was back to pestering Ren. "You're not that busy today?"

Tukson looked around. He had a few customers but they weren't really looking for anything. Each person was a Faunus. "It's been pretty slow today. A lot of new books aren't in yet so I've got to make some calls for when they show up. I should be getting the next shipment in today at some point. Hopefully they're not late with it."

"Do you make calls for when new comics come out as well?"

"I can." Jaune wrote down his number for Tukson. Tukson put in his terminal. "I'll let you know when the next one comes out and I'll hold it for you."

"Thanks!" Tukson gave a nod. Jaune grabbed up his team and left when they paid for their things. "The weapon shop, right?" Pyrrha gave an affirmative nod and began marching for the location. She had one in mind. Nora trailed behind, happily humming a song while Ren tried and failed to read his new book that he bought. If it wasn't for Nora asking him questions he might have achieved it. Sadly, he was forced to put away the book and answer her questions and be social with his team. "So where is this weapon shop we're going to?"

Pyrrha kept quiet the whole way until they came to a shop named SEVEN STEPS TO THE SUN in bold yellow and orange letters. Pyrrha pushed the door open and paused to smile. Jauna bumped in to her and grumbled as Nora did the same to him. In front of the counter was Emert. He was talking on his Scroll to someone while the shop keep was in the back. He poked his head and gave a light wave and said he'd be with them in a minute. As they walked in a teenage girl walked past them with sky blue hair. She didn't even notice them. She walked right up to Emert and wrapped her arms around his waist. He shook his head, a smile tugging at his lips as he said something to whoever was on the other end and canceled the call.

"Baby," he whined as she put her chin on his shoulder, "you always complain when I'm affection to you. It's not fair that you do this to me but I can't do it to you."

"Well, I'm a woman and I get what I want." He groaned and spun around in her arms. For a moment he didn't notice them. He cupped her cheeks and was about to kiss her when his eyes panned around the room and he saw them. He blinked and laughed. She groaned now and spun around, taking in the group with a dark look. When her eyes landed on Pyrrha, their eyes locked and suddenly Pyrrha seemed a little heated. "Red," she greeted sharply. Emert threw his head back with an audible sigh. "It's been a while."

"Yes it has, Blue." Jaune looked between them in fear. Nora started cheering for a fight. Ren tried to stop her, but she wasn't listening. She was chanting about breaking legs and wrestling moves. Jaune stepped between but Pyrrha put a hand on his shoulder and gently moved him back. "I didn't know you were in Vale. Are you here for the tournament?"

She laughed, something that sounded like heaven to Jaune's ears. Her sky blue hair was cut short. She had two studs in each ear. Around her left eye was a blue C that wrapped around and looked like the cartoon outline for an eye with a line running down at the end of it by her noise that looked like a tear. She wore a blue jean jacket with a white undershirt tucked into her blue cargo pants. She carried a black and blue backpack with the same marking that was around her eye on it. She had dark tanned skin and azure colored eyes. On her left wrist a black band with the same design that was on her bag and eye. On the right wrist was a similar gauntlet to what Emert wore, but it sported a blue gem on the back of the hand.

"I'm not here for that, Red. I'm here visiting my boyfriend." She tapped Emert on the chest and smiled. "And I see you brought your… esteemed leader." Pyrrha's blood boiled at the way she said that. Jaune looked confused, but oddly happy. "Emert mentioned you a few times during our talks. Jaune Arc, right?" Jaune nodded and was about to shake her hand when Pyrrha stopped him. "Oh… Jealous?"

"You don't exactly know how to control your own strength," Pyrrha said with a voice that sounded like a whip being cracked. Jaune looked terrified and chuckled nervously.

"So you're jealous? Gotcha!"

"Baby," Emert said while rubbing the bridge of his noise, "please don't start a fight. This is the first time in months I've gotten to see you. So please don't cause a scene." She pouted and stuck her tongue out at him. Emert gave her a smile that screamed "Be nice" to her before he looked back at the others. "This is my girlfriend, Aurora Law. She's the rank three champion in most tournaments."

"That's you?" Jaune asked,

"Well I'm rank two, now that Red here isn't competing," she corrected. "But yeah, I'm her!"

"That's so cool!" Jaune thought back to the comment she made a moment ago and looked hopeful towards Emert. "You mention me to her? Thanks… I think."

"Don't worry," she told him quickly, jumping to the defense of her boyfriend, "he's always nice when he talks about you. Says that you're a little lacking in the fighting department though, but you make up for it with your leadership skills. Said you know when the hold them and when to fold him. Not many men are like that. Trust me! I'm dating one right now! He'll beat a dead horse if he's told punching it will bring it back to life." Emert chuckled into his hand. Pyrrha did as well at the very thought of Emert doing that. She couldn't truly see it, but it was a funny thought regardless. Jaune just seemed hurt by the comment about his fighting ability. Aurora was quick to notice and said, "Not everybody is a great warrior like us, Arc. It takes years to reach this level and we're not even fighting in the big leagues. I'm sure that if someone like Ozpin or even James were to compete, neither of us would stand a chance. We may be well known, but that's because we're not fighting in the BIG leagues just yet."

"But you're still known and you're still strong. You're stronger than me." Pyrrha put a knowing hand on his shoulder and gave a light glare to Emert.

"There's nothing wrong with that, Arc. Believe me; I didn't start out as a good fighting. I had to learn the hard way. Some of us just don't have a good Semblance to match what we can do in combat." Pyrrha's glare intensified. Aurora looked happy by her annoyance. "Believe me, I've spent enough time eating dirt to know that it takes years to reach our level unless your gifted or your family would be considered cruel and forces you to fight when you can barely walk. That's pretty much what my parents did. That's why I'm as good as I am. So chin up, okay. If you want, I can give you a few pointers. I gave this dummy some and he still winds up on his back all the time."

Emert snorted in protest. "In bed, but that's because I'm lazy."

"Yeah, you are." He beamed happiness and had a faraway look in his eyes when she said that. Aurora looked between Jaune and Pyrrha and chuckled. "Honeybun says you use a sword a shield to fight. Is that right?" Jaune nodded mutely. "Then you should have all you need if you ask Pyrrha to help you. I'm sure she can give you a few pointers. I don't use those kinds of weapons. My weapons are claws. I'm strictly hand-to-hand for when it comes to fighting. That's why Emert is as well. Of course," she elbowed him in the gut and gave a snarl when he still had a the faraway look in his eye, "this idiot would have his weapon during the initiation test but he left at my place when we spent the last three days together training and hanging out before he came here."

That got their attention. "Why didn't you bring it with you?" Ren asked. Again, the look returned to his face. Ren got the message. Nora and Jaune didn't. Pyrrha wasn't paying attention to him. "So why haven't you gotten it yet?"

Emert came out of his funk and sighed. "With all the crap that White Fang is doing, they're buckling down on anyone that's shipping weapons anywhere. They have to a get a license to ship my weapon to me. My parents managed to get it, but that was actually a mistake since they're Faunus and with everything the White Fang is doing, I couldn't get it unless they found someone willing to ship it to me. Her father managed to get it back and decided to ship it here. So I'm picking it up today." Ren nodded while Pyrrha looked sad at the mention of the White Fang. Emert ignored her and focused more on Jaune. "Jaune, if you want, I can give you some lessons, but I'm not the best at teaching anything to anyone. Truthfully, my Semblance is better than hers, which I fight the way I do."

Aurora pouted. Pyrrha smiled. No one had actually seen Emert's Semblance in action yet. He said he used it once in front of them, but they never saw it as far as they were aware.

The shop keep came in with a scowl as he sat the package on the table. Aurora paid for it and they quickly opened it up to inspect it. He pulled out two steel gauntlets with a bulky top part to it that covered his forearm. Pyrrha shuddered at the sight of it. He slapped one and flexed his hand. Three blades sprang from the oversized portion of the blade and unfolded to be as long as his forearm. The blades were serrated on both sides and painted a dull gold. The couple inspected them thoroughly before he slapped the second one on and folded the blades back with a jerk of his arm.

"Everything seems to be working on them," he told her. She smiled and handed the box back to the man. He stuffed it under the counter. "So I say we go find a quiet place and spar for a bit."

Her face twisted into a look of displeasure. She ran a finger over his chest, getting a grin out of him as a result. "You want me to spend the three days I have up here with you sparing?" she said dangerously. Pyrrha grinned. Emert gave her a hug grin. "I would rather like to do something romantic."

"Like what? Dinner and a movie?" She nodded. He looked at the ceiling and made a face. "Fine… I know a restaurant we can visit tonight. I'll tell Sasuke that I'm staying in town with a friend – Don't you guys tell him I'm dating her or anyone else because I will kick your ass! – and we just spend the whole weekend doing whatever you want, Baby."

She tapped his chin and smiled. "You always know what to say to make me happy." Emert wrapped his arms around her. She twisted and looked at Pyrrha and smiled at her scowl. "See, Pyrrha, that's how you make a man do what you want him to do. Whenever you find a man, keep that in mind." Emert shook his head and marched out of the door. Pyrrha watched them go with a scowl on her face. Jaune coughed and Pyrrha purchased the two wooden swords with the scowl still on her face.

(-)

The need for fresh air was not something Sasuke had truly wanted, but it was refreshing. The night sky was alive with twinkling stars and a bitter chill that marked the coming days of winter. With the Vytal Festival right around the corner, Sasuke had grown worrisome of his old habits and had begun to sink into them again. He was back to grunting and groans when his teammates talked to him. He knew they cared about him, but the thought of returning to his old self was haunting him and pushing him back towards it. And then there was tomorrow. If Naruto didn't wake up before noon they were putting him in a pod and taking him to the vault of the academy. Sasuke hadn't gone there yet, as he wasn't allowed. But if Naruto wasn't awake, Ozpin promised him that he would be allowed to go down and see him after class. He would be monitored by people from Atlas that would be kept in the dark about his origins but not his power.

Sasuke checked the Scroll and saw that he was just getting over his seizure. The time between them was getting closer. In the last half hour he had eight of them and each one worse than the last. His bed was almost completely destroyed. They couldn't run the risk of using the sedatives anymore as the needle had gotten broken off in his arm. Surgery was done to remove it, but Naruto ended up cutting up the doctor with his claws when another seizure hit him hard. There had been no warning to it. He just had it, jumped up, and slashed at the doctor with a snarl before he started thrashing in bed like a man possessed.

If things continued the way they were going, Naruto was either about to die or wake up. Sasuke hoped it would be wake up, but with all the drugs they had pumped into his body to try and calm him down and suppress his symptoms, it wasn't looking good.

He collapsed on the edge of the roof and looked at the stars with sad forlorn eyes. Sasuke could remember all the times he watched them with Sakura, Naruto, and Kakashi. He wanted those days back. He could have had them if he had simply stayed his course and been the man he was becoming before Itachi reminded him that his quest for power was needed and that any means to acquire it was acceptable. He wondered how things would have turned out if Sakura had even come with him. Would she hate what he became? Would she have tried to finish Naruto off? Would she even have survived their fight? Naruto might not attack her during their fight, but Sasuke felt that he would have made an attempt to use her and kill Naruto by going through her.

He shut his eye and willed the thought away. He couldn't think like that. What if she were here now? Would she even be on his team? Would she stay by his side even after what he did to Naruto? She openly tried to stop them from fighting on the roof that day! So of course she would have hated him.

An explosion at the docks caught his attention. He stood up and stared at the rising smoke. Sasuke grimaced as he checked his Scroll. Naruto was fine. He recovered already. Sirens sounded and Sasuke cursed himself as he jumped off the roof and towards the sounds of fighting. Another explosion sounded. It was closer and there was a scream. Sasuke pumped chakra into his legs and came to a stop on a warehouse that overlooked the open field. A few dozen men in white and black garb wearing animal masks were lying on the ground unconscious.

The sound of a bullhorn flying overhead caught his attention. It was fleeing the scene. Squinting his eye at the men on the ground he caught sight of a man white blond hair wearing blue jeans and an unbuttoned white shirt. He had a staff his hand as he marched up to Blake and another girl with orange hair and a dress of some sort. Ruby appeared in a flurry of rose petals and started speaking to the three.

Turning to leave, Sasuke caught sight of the cops that were on their way. He groaned and turned back to them. He dropped down and walked over the four. Ruby noticed him first and looked around fearfully as the former Uchiha marched up on them. "You do know that the cops are coming, right?" he asked them.

"Well," Blake said, her ears twitching in response, "it's not like I _can't_ hear them." She grabbed the ribbon that made up her bow and quickly put it back on to cover up her cat ears. Sasuke rolled his eyes and looked at the other two. The blond haired Faunus with a monkey tail was sizing him up with a dangerous look in his eyes. "Sun, this is Sasuke. He's the leader of Team JSPR." Sun nodded mutely. "This is Penny. She's… a big help here." Blake was unsure of how to put what she just witnessed into words. Sasuke didn't seem to care. "If the cops are on the way, we need to tie these people up and make sure they're arrested." 

"You guys can do that," Sasuke told her. He jumped up onto the warehouse roof. "I'm going back to the hospital."

"Has he still not woken up?" Sasuke remained quiet. Blake narrowed her eyes on him. "It's not healthy what you're doing."

"Neither is hiding your ears, but I suppose that's our choices to make." He disappeared and appeared on the next building. The cops were unaware of him as he made his way along the roof and returned to the hospital. Sasuke checked his Scroll and then went inside. Naruto wasn't having another attack just yet. But given how much time passed between them now he'd be having one any minute. He watched over his friend for an hour before sleep finally took him.

Sasuke dreamt of his time in Konoha and saw himself as the star child of the class. Naruto was there. He watched his first match against him and was left with a bitter taste in his mouth when he watched his younger self beat him easily. Their instructor congratulated him and told them to show their bond of friendship. Neither of boy did it. Fire burned through the dream like fire through a photo and Sasuke was suddenly standing in front of his transformed self. The hand wings flexed as he charged up his last Chidori. Naruto did the same. Citizens ran for cover and men in uniforms showed up to try and stop them.

They lunged.

Naruto missed and scrapped the headband Sasuke wore.

Sasuke didn't and drove his hand through Naruto's chest.

The blond coughed. "I'm your friend!"

Sasuke blinked and touched his missing eye as Naruto suddenly lunged forward through his arm and removed it with a snarl as his eyes glazed over red. Then just like that, Sasuke snapped out of his transformed state and removed his arm from Naruto's chest. He screamed. Naruto collapsed in a pool of his own blood.

Alarms sounded and Sasuke jerked awake. He looked around. Naruto was still sleeping peacefully. His Scroll vibrated. He yanked it out with a groan, answering it with a dry and tired, "Hello," as he got up and looked for some water.

" _Where are you?!"_ It was Emert.

"At the hospital with Naruto," Sasuke told him. He missed the urgency in his voice.

" _How long have you been there?"_ There was a pause and a scream. Sasuke jerked awake at that and looked at the Scroll in question. _"Grimm are moving into the city. A large Nevermore got through the defenses. Someone was transporting Grimm in a bullhead and it crashed in the park. They're heading towards your location, Sasuke! Something has gotten them all riled up!"_ There was a bang and someone said something too far away from the Scroll. _"It's bad, man! They're calling all available hunters to defend the city! We sort of need your help!"_

"I'm on my way!" Sasuke clicked it off and scrolled the menu until he found what he needed. He tapped it and cursed his own fortune at having to use his rocket propelled locker for a change. He raced to the roof. It landed before he got there with a loud thunk. Grabbing his sword, he threw on a belt to hold it up and strapped his kunai pouch to his leg. The sound of fighting was close. He checked his Scroll and then looked to the east. The fighting was closer than he thought. He bolted off the roof and landed in the streets. Citizens were already running away.

Sasuke ran through the crowd of people until he caught sight of the first Grimm. It was killing people too weak to fight back. In a flash of speed he sliced through skin and bone, removing its head and saving one person from its teeth. The man never stopped running or turned back. Sasuke did. A hail of feathers came down and ended his life. Sasuke gasped in horror and looked up. The Nevermore was circling around the city. It didn't have a real direction to its flight. Anything that was moving on the ground was a target for it. Grudgingly Sasuke didn't engage in a fight with it. It was too high up for him to reach it.

Sasuke continued his path towards the park where the fighting was at its worse. The Grimm had really dug in and weren't giving up anything. What had started out as probably no more than a half a dozen had quickly turned into a couple dozen as more and more them poured through tunnels that they had dug when they landed. This was a covert strike team if Sasuke ever saw one that was led by a pack of wild animals. He dove into the fighting and fought alongside a few other faceless people he didn't know. When he heard the familiar sound of a machine gun he caught sight of Coco mowing them down by the dozen with each fifty bullets she fired from the gun.

Sasuke carved a path through the Grimm as he made his way to her. She stopped firing and looked at her work. The trees were no more and the Grimm all lay dead. Her team moved to her. Jasper and Emert were with Velvet. They gave each other tired cheers as they rounded on their leader. "You're late," Coco told him.

"I was asleep at the hospital," Sasuke told her with a hiss. Coco caught on and looked around. "The Nevermore was flying towards the hospital but it doubled back and then I lost sight of it."

"How'd you lose sight of a large bird that I think could feed a family forever if they didn't disappear when they die, Sasuke?" Jasper asked him. Sasuke gave him a hard stare. Jasper might have been one to laugh if the mood wasn't as dark as it was. He checked his Scroll and sighed. "Another sighting of Grimm not too far from here. It's at 5th Pornphan 81st street. Team JNPR is there with Glynda and Persia. They're holding them off but the Nevermore is causing unwanted problems. It's dropping more Grimm into the city."

"So they're just hitching a ride on that big bastard?" Emert asked. He groaned in defeat and brandished his weapons. "Alright, I'll take care of the bird. You guys think you can get to them in time to help?"

"How are you going to take down the bird?" Velvet asked. Emert smiled as Aurora stepped up beside him. She was wearing weapons similar to Emert's, but they weren't serrated. The blades were smooth and prime for cutting through flesh. He wrapped his arm around her waist in and vanished with a pulsing noise. "He can teleport?"

"That's his Semblance..." Jasper told her. Velvet chewed on her lip. She couldn't copy that. "Sasuke, we'll meet up with you there. You're faster than us."

Nodding, Sasuke bolted for the location. It wasn't far. In fact it was only a block away from where the hospital was. They should be moving people out of to keep them safe. Sasuke thought about Naruto and pulled his Scroll out while he ran. Naruto was fine. He put it away as he got closer to the Grimm. Jaune and Pyrrha worked together to beat back the Alpha Ursa that was making a charge for citizens. Glynda and Persia worked in tangent to drive back any other Grimm that got close with long range support. Sasuke dove through two Grimm with a quick swipe of his sword. They disappeared before they even hit the ground.

He rolled to his feet and started slashing through them until their bodies were piled high. He got back to back with Jaune as the blond haired man fought with another Ursa that was trying to take a shot at a few more civilians. Sasuke twisted, tossed a kunai into its eye. Jaune lunged forward and swung his sword through its neck. It didn't remove the head, but it killed it as it fell over trying to clutch its throat. Sasuke grabbed his kunai from the disappearing body and threw it into a Beowolf that was trying to get the jump on Ren. Ren was quick to act and kicked it away, driving the kunai further in to its body before he popped it full of lead.

A hailstorm of bullets zipped up the middle, cutting through a turned over car and slicing through eight Grimm that were unfortunately in the path of the small rounds. A second later both Yatsuhashi and Fox appeared out of the sky. They dove down on another batch and started fighting. Velvet kicked and punched each Grimm down alongside Jasper as he cut through their flesh with his flail. When one got smart and backed off, he lashed out with a tether of energy to yank it forward or yank something out of it.

The sound of the Nevermore swooping down on them got their attention. They turned their focus to the sky as it got too close to the ground. They pepped it with their long range abilities if they had one. It did little more than annoy it as it was finally able to go back into the sky. Emert and Aurora dropped down and appeared in front of the group with a sonic boom. It flew off and circled around beyond the city walls.

Fighting resumed against the Grimm that were on foot. It turned in their favor. Sasuke slashed his way through them when there was a scream behind him. Grimm were getting into the hospital. Glynda shot a spell into the door and threw out a dozen other Grimm that had snuck in. Sasuke charged towards the door. The Nevermore landed down in front of him with a loud screech.

"Out of my way!" Sasuke screamed as he tried to push through it. With a single flap of its wings it sent him back. A hailstorm of its iron feathers surged forward. Sasuke rolled out of the way and screamed as he fired several large fireballs at the massive Grimm. It screeched as it was set on fire. Thinking he had a chance to get by, Sasuke ran as fast as he could. The ground exploded upwards a large snake Grimm appeared. Sasuke was once again forward back.

More and more Grimm poured out of the hole. Glynda sealed it up. But the damage was already done. A few hundred Grimm were running rampage through the streets and killing everything they could. Sasuke grimaced as he slashed at another set of Grimm as he made another charge for the hospital. They pushed him back and he could feel his anger growing as his fears began to grow. The Grimm focused on Sasuke for his negative emotion. Before long Sasuke was in a circle of death as the Grimm closed in around him. He cut his way through them and jumped high. The Nevermore flapped its wings and sent him to the ground. The Grimm fell over from the massive gust of wind.

Sasuke landed beside Velvet and Pyrrha as they got to their feet. A loud whining sound screamed over the fighting and Sasuke froze. Slowly he looked at his Scroll and checked the heart monitor. It showed no heartbeat. Blood tears poured from Sasuke's eye and he dropped his weapon and Scroll as he fell to his knees. Pyrrha turned to him, a hand on his shoulder as Sasuke punched the ground. She saw the heart monitor and gasped as she knew what it mean.

"You…" Sasuke snarled. He looked up, his Sharingan spinning angrily as black tattoos began to cover his left arm. "He… You… YOU ARE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS!" He picked up his sword and charged them in blind rage.

Sasuke raged against each Grimm as he hacked his way through them with his sword. He cut through them with ease. The body count grew. Sasuke kept slashing against them. He didn't care anymore. He took a hit to his back that sent him forward. A hand grabbed his shoulder and yanked him out of a pile of Grimm. Jasper yanked him out and pulled him to safety. They landed beside Glynda as she casted another spell to kill more Grimm. More huntsmen and huntresses began to show up. Sasuke wanted to scream at them all as they worked to clear out the Grimm.

The air suddenly grew heavy and all the fighting stopped. Velvet's ears perked when she heard a beeping noise. An explosion rocked the top floor of the hospital and sent debris falling on top of the Nevermore. It turned to see what happened and was suddenly on the ground with a large red specter hand holding it down. It screeched and died in when the head twisted and broke its neck.

"What is going on?" Jaune asked.

Sasuke's eye was wide with fear as the specter hand slowly retracted back into the dust cloud from the explosion. A red tendril of energy appeared out of the smoke cloud and Sasuke watched it twitch like a living thing. It moved back into the cloud of smoke and a shadowy figure stepped onto the edge of the destroyed room that was open to the world. The smoke faded and Naruto walked out with the red aura over his body. Its form was animalistic and sported large ears, claws, and a tail that twitched like a living thing.

"Naruto," Sasuke whispered. "You're alive?" Glazed over red eyes stared down the former Uchiha. Sasuke grimaced. _Those eyes! Those are the same eyes when we last fought._ Naruto's mouth cracked open to reveal long fangs. Sasuke took a fighting stance. "Naruto! It's me! Sasuke! You remember me! Right?!"

Naruto roared and sent a shockwave through the air that knocked everyone down. He grabbed a chunk of the wall and jumped down at the group with a fist raised forward to attack.

A/N

And I'm ending it there. Naruto is awake… but not himself. We've got a big fight ahead before he's even back to himself and even then, a lot of Grimm loose in the city. So that's going to be a fun chapter to write because this is how I want it! So I know I probably just made Sasuke way different by having him do that in the middle of battle, but really, the person he's been trying to protect and wait to wake up just supposedly died by Grimm. So I thought it fitting that he have a moment like that before his rage over took him.


	9. Awakening Part 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 8

Velvet braced herself as her legs buckled under the pressure of the shockwave Naruto generated from his roar. What felt like the weight of the world crushed down on her shoulders and she barely caught herself from face planting onto the asphalt. She could see Sasuke standing under the force of the shockwave with a look of fear in his eye. His entire body quacked with rage as the thing that was Naruto howled some more before grabbing a piece of the destroyed wall to help in his jump that sent him straight at Sasuke.

The weight lifted and everyone was able to get to their feet in time to see Naruto crash down and smacked Sasuke with a powerful backhand that sent him through the remains of the store behind him and onto the street on the other side of it. Naruto screamed and released another shockwave, knocking almost everyone to their backsides before he ran on all fours towards the former Uchiha.

Velvet sprang to her feet and ran around the corner just in time to see Sasuke get punched in the chest and knocked up a building before being backhanded away by the enraged blond. Sasuke and Naruto disappeared from view. Velvet gave chase against protest from Coco and Jaune.

(-)

Sasuke struck the ground hard and grimaced for only a split second as the pain kicked in. He lost sight of Naruto momentarily but was quickly able to pinpoint him when the sound of growling came from his right. He sprang to his feet, rolled backwards, jumped up, and braced as Naruto got right on top of him in a burst of speed unnatural to his normal self and punched him hard in the shoulder, sending him flying again. Sasuke was able to right himself almost instantly and was able to dodge the following punch from his enraged former teammate, putting him behind him. Sasuke grabbed his lengthened hair and threw him into the ground. Naruto didn't make a sound. He just looked up and Sasuke saw only hatred in his eyes.

Naruto jumped up and slashed at his face. Sasuke saw it coming and jumped back to avoid the swipe. The chakra that covered him jumped off his arm, lengthened, and tagged the former Uchiha hard in the side. Sasuke rolled along the ground before coming to a stop in a small home. The occupants ran out the backdoor. Sasuke jumped to his feet and jumped over his charging friend. Upside down, he grabbed his sword and slashed at him with the side of the blade. The chakra tail came up and blocked the attack. Sasuke's eye widened as the tail wrapped about the blade and flung it out the door. Sasuke flipped and corrected his fall in the air. Naruto screamed and threw a chakra arm out at him. The former Uchiha rolled away and dove out the hole created by their entrance.

Sasuke brandished some kunai as he made his way to his sword. Naruto smashed through the back of the house and charged him. Groaning, Sasuke sped up and grabbed his sword while tossing a kunai at the blond. Naruto didn't stop and took the kunai to the shoulder. It fell out of him and healed itself before he got to Sasuke.

The former Uchiha screamed as he drove the sword through Naruto chest. He let out of a roar of defiance and grabbed the blade to pull it in closer. Sasuke gasped and let go. The possessed Naruto ripped it from his form and threw it with all his might at his friend. Sasuke leaned to the right and avoided it. The sword flew into the side of a boat and stuck there. Grimacing, Sasuke jumped out onto the water and started running further out to keep Naruto away from the citizens.

Roaring angrily, Naruto jumped out onto the water and ran after him.

Free to use whatever means to get Naruto snap out of his battle trance, Sasuke unleashed a volley of fireballs that struck his blond friend. When the steam from the super hated water cleared Naruto remained standing and Sasuke grimaced. _As if that was going to work on you right now. It didn't work last time. I don't know why I thought it'd work again._ Sasuke kept watching Naruto as he waited for his next move. Naruto huffed and snorted and growled as he kept one arm just a few inches into the water. Sasuke gasped and looked down.

Too late.

A rad specter hand came out of the water and grabbed him. With a mighty roar Naruto threw the former Uchiha back at dry land where he landed on his feet with a scowl. Naruto roared and charged him with unnatural speed again on all fours. Sasuke watched him closely as he zipped through the water in different directions before disappearing behind a wall of water. Sensing danger, Sasuke jumped up on top of the building. A loud bang sounded and the whole building shook. Once more sensing danger, Sasuke jumped off the roof and turned to watch a pair of red hands erupted through the roof to try and grab his previous location. They paused and Sasuke jumped back as the ground erupted beneath his feet to produce another hand. It paused and a second arm shot out of it to try and snag him.

Sasuke turned around and ran for the water again. He glanced over his shoulder. The hand stopped following him and pulled back. Sasuke came to a stop and watched as Naruto stepped out of the home slowly. A look of rage was across his face. "Don't do this, Naruto. Please! Just stop! We don't have to fight anymore! It's pointless now!"

Screaming in rage, Naruto flung both arms forward, creating two red specter arms that raced for his location. Sasuke jumped over both arms and twisted before throwing a kunai out with a wire attached to drag himself out of the way of their follow up attacks. The two arms passed him by as he yanked himself out of their paths. They turned around and made their way towards him as he landed on the city streets. Sasuke rolled backwards and avoided them for the third time. Getting to his feet he ran at the blond.

 _If I can get in close!_

Naruto's chakra returned to him and he ran at the former Uchiha with his unnatural speed again. Sasuke jumped over him as he swung at him with his claws out. Landing, Sasuke jumped forward with all his might. Naruto turned just in time to take a powerful fist to his face that spun his whole body around in the air. Seeing his opening, Sasuke hammered his friend with as many strikes as he could. Naruto screamed and pushed him back with a roar. Not detoured, Sasuke jumped back to fighting him with his fists. Each blow burned his skin as he pushed his way through the chakra shroud. He could feel something on the edge of his mind that was connected to Naruto with each hit.

Regret…

Sasuke struck him again.

Fear…

Sasuke hammered away on his stomach, driving him into the air.

Loneliness…

Sasuke flipped up and kicked him hard in the head to knock back to the water.

Love…

Sasuke huffed as the emotions hit him hard. These were things that were in Naruto's head. He could feel something else just beyond the veil of his mind. With each blow he could feel himself getting closer to an answer. It was like there was something inside him trying to keep him out. Sasuke flexed his hands and sheathed his sword. If he drew it again he was going to cut off a limb on his friend. With all the things he got back up from, Sasuke doubted that a removed limb would stop him from getting back up or somehow growing one back.

The possessed Uzumaki screamed and created a shockwave that sent large waves crashing against the dock. Sasuke stared him down. Naruto was on all fours again, but with that attack it made him collapsed onto an elbow and roar as another tail sprouted from his shroud.

That clinched it. Naruto had the Kyuubi inside him. No way would anyone's Bloodline allow something as radical as that to happen. Orochimaru could make some odd abilities that would morph the human body. But this was beyond him. As the second tail finished sprouting Naruto suddenly shot into the air and roared as he descended down on the former Uchiha. Sasuke jumped back and jumped forward when he hit the ground. He punched his friend in the face and got a glimpse of a golden room with a large gate, a paper seal in the middle of it, and a floating golden orb with a clawed hand grasping it.

The vision stuck with him for a moment too long as Sasuke felt pain ripped through his side. Reality came crashing back to him in the form of a claw hand grazing his flesh along his stomach. Naruto slashed again and caught Sasuke's chest. Blood spurted into the air as the former Uchiha jumped back to avoid the next swing that would have surely take his head if he hadn't moved. Naruto moved quickly and was on him before he could land. With a powerful backhand, Sasuke went into city streets and smacked into the side of a card. It dented from his form landing against it and was thrown back against the building it was parked in front of him.

Pulling himself out, Sasuke grimaced as he held his side where Naruto had gotten him. It hurt a lot. He wrapped his shirt around it while watching his former teammate have tantrum on the ground. It was puzzling to watch as the Uzumaki roared and banged his head into the ground. When he stopped there was a single cerulean eye that was normal. Sasuke hoped it was the start of his coming to.

"Save my son!"

Sasuke paused at the request. That was Naruto speaking with his voice but the request was not his own.

Before he could speak the eye returned to its red state and control was given back to his possessor. With a new found rage, Naruto moved quicker and drove a fist through Sasuke's body, cutting him half. His momentum carried him through the car and then the building. Sasuke's broken form hit the ground as logs and his real self appeared huffing as he was thankful for being quick enough to replace himself with the fire kindling that was being sold.

Before he could get a moment of respite Naruto appeared and seemed angrier than he was before. His speed increased again and Sasuke huffed as he felt a fist get driven into his stomach. With a violent roar Sasuke was thrown down the street and sent skipping along the ground. Sasuke wanted to cry from how much it hurt. Not even having his eye ripped out hurt as much as the fist to his stomach did. He coughed blood as he got to his feet just in time to take another fist to his gut and continue backwards down the street with Naruto hammering away on his form. Another building came up and Sasuke was driven through it. The home collapsed around him.

Naruto threw his head back and screamed. The rubble was mostly blown away. Sasuke grimaced from his spot in the destruction. He was pinned under a support beam that had landed on his left arm. Naruto moved towards him only to get blown away by a blast of magic and bullets. Sasuke turned and saw team CVFY, JNPR, the rest of JSPR moving on him with Glynda backing them up.

"NO! STAY AWAY FROM HIM! HE'S DANGEROUS!" Sasuke shouted.

Naruto burst from the building and charged them with his ungodly speed. Glynda created an array that trapped him in a pillar of light. Yatsuhashi ran to Sasuke. Jasper was already there trying to move the support beam. Once the big man showed the beam was removed. Sasuke moved past them and ran at his possessed friend. He brandished his sword and drove it through Naruto's side. Everyone gasped.

Sasuke pushed chakra through the blade and felt himself get drawn into the golden room again. Water came up to his ankles. He paused to consider it before the air suddenly grew very warm. A huffing noise could be heard. Sasuke looked around for it but then moved towards the orb that was in the clawed hand. The hand attempted to jerk the orb into the darkness behind the golden bars. Sasuke glanced up and into the darkness. He didn't see anything. He moved closer to the orb. He could see a spider web of red cracks in it.

A shadowy form lay inside the orb with red tendrils of energy reaching through the chest and stomach. Sasuke put a hand on it. It pulsed twice. The clawed hand jerked it at the bars and it cracked further. The body inside groaned as the red tendrils thickened and pumped more energy inside the orb. It hummed and the cracks grew around it. Sasuke activated his Sharingan and the figure became clear as a bright light erupted from within it. Naruto was in the orb. Sasuke put his hands on the orb again and hammered away on it with his fist.

" **He is mine!"** Sasuke jerked around to the sound of the voice. Red eyes appeared behind the bars in the darkness. Sickening white teeth appeared that nearly too up all the darkness within the chamber that Sasuke could see. Suddenly a large red creature appeared with its one hand through the bars holding the orb. Nine tails swished behind it in rage. **"This is where you die, Uchiha! This is where I get my freedom!"** He roared and Sasuke found himself back outside of the world of the golden room. Naruto screamed and threw Sasuke back. His sword flew with him as the barrier broke apart.

"Open fire!" Jaune screamed.

"No! Wait!" Sasuke and Pyrrha shouted. Nora ignored them and blasted Naruto with all of her grenades. Aurora screamed and shot out of a beam of pure blue energy that sent a torrent of blue flames into the air. Pyrrha despaired as Sasuke growled and held his sword at the ready. "You idiots! Stop attacking him! You'll die if you fight him!"

"I think we just got him!" Jaune fired back, unhappy that Sasuke thought his idea and skills were dumb.

The ground bulged. Sasuke ran as fast as he could and shoved Nora, Aurora and Jaune out of the way as a red specter hand shout of the ground. It caught Sasuke. With a mighty roar the cloud of smoke and dust was blown away to show Naruto unscathed and even more furious than he was moments ago as he turned and yanked the arm back with all his might to throw Sasuke straight at the ground at the building he'd already wrecked. Sasuke disappeared inside a cloud of dust and falling debris that had shot upwards with the force of his impact.

Naruto roared as the dust cloud got close to him. It was pushed away by the invisible force of his scream. Everyone gawked as the enraged blond began to move towards them slowly.

"He… he took no damage from that?" Ren asked in a terror as he stepped back.

"How do we stop him?!" Fox asked in fear.

Naruto howled and dropped to all fours. "There's no question that you're special, Naruto." Sasuke's voice came over the sound of gunfire as the others opened fire on the Grimm that were marching on their location. A deep power erupted from the rubble where Sasuke was buried and his form was revealed. Most of his left side was covered in black tattoos and Sharingan eye spun angrily. Huffing, Sasuke fought against the dark power of his Curse Seal as the possessed Uzumaki marched towards him with a snarl. "Unfortunately, you're not as special as I am!" He huffed as he grabbed his sword. "Is that what you wanted me to say?!" Naruto paused and shook his head. His eyes turned blue for a moment before going back to red. "You're in there! I saw it! I'm not letting that monster take you away! Do you understand me?! I'll break every single bone in your body if that's what it takes to stop you! You're not going anywhere!"

(Nanatsu no Taizai OST Eri0ne$)

Naruto stood upright and screamed a might roar as a third tail sprouted.

Sasuke let the tattoos cover his entire left side fully as he charged his friend. Naruto dropped and did the same. They clashed and a storm of chaotic energies warped reality around them. Naruto punched Sasuke in the face. Sasuke's head exploded and he turned into a log. He appeared above him and stabbed him through his back with his sword. Naruto screamed and grabbed his wrist. Sasuke punched him in the head and felt the connection grow as he was dragged back into the golden chamber. He ran for his friend before he was yanked out and back to reality as Naruto threw him away. Sasuke rolled to his feet and used his sword to come to a stop.

Naruto flung both arms forward and sent two massive charka arms out. Sasuke jumped between them closed the distance on his friend. He slashed at him and cut his chest open. The wound healed almost instantly. Sasuke punched him in the head and the connection was established for only a moment. _Just hold on! I'm going to save you! I swear it!_

Naruto grabbed Sasuke and threw him into the ground. Sasuke coughed blood when Naruto followed it up with a punch to his stomach. Screaming in anger, Sasuke kicked him away, flipped to his feet and ran after him. Naruto burst out of the smoke from where he hit with a chakra arm flying towards Sasuke. The former Uchiha jumped to the left and avoided it. He threw his sword at him like a kunai. Naruto batted it away with one of his three tails as he closed to the distance on him. Sasuke slid under him and got back to his feet to run for his sword. He grabbed it up, jumped, clung to the building and ran up it. He got to the top, turned and spat fireballs down on him. Naruto roared and the flames were blown away.

Sasuke quickly looked to his friends as they were forced to fight off an endless army of Grimm. They were coming out of the ground and out of the ocean to fight them. Grimacing, he looked back at Naruto has ripped a Deathstalkers' claw off and skewered it with it. It disappeared in a pillar of black smoke but more showed up to take him on. Sasuke closed his eye and jumped down at him. He punched him in the back of the head but ignored the connection this time. Naruto turned on him and reached out to him to try and grab him. Sasuke avoided him and ran towards the others. Naruto finished off the remaining Grimm before giving chase.

"Clear a path!" Sasuke shouted at them. Jaune and Coco turned and quickly jumped away as Sasuke dashed between them. A second later Naruto bolted through the open gap on all four. Sasuke jumped ahead and sliced through a large Beowolfs' leg, cutting it clean off. Naruto tackled through it and started mauling the thing in a fit of rage. Sasuke doubled back as more Grimm came up from behind them. He landed beside Coco and Jaune. The others turned to him and then to the enraged blond that was killing all of the Grimm that attacked him or were too close to him. "You have to stay out of this one! All of you! Please! Naruto isn't himself right now! I can save him!"

"We can help!" Fox fired back. More Grimm showed up. Glynda moved to the front and fire bolts of magic into them. It only stopped a few of them. Coco joined her and started firing on them. Pyrrha and Jasper moved forward to start fighting as well.

"No! Not with him!" Sasuke looked back at Naruto as he continued his slaughter of the Grimm. "He's like this because of me. If I hadn't hurt him so badly, he wouldn't be like this. But I did. And this is my fault. I have to fix this. I can fix this. I **will** fix this! So please stay out of this one. Just let me deal with him. I can save him. Just… don't look back. No matter what you hear. No matter what; don't look back."

Jaune reached out to him but pulled back and ran for the Grimm with his team. Fox and Yatsuhashi looked back at the Grimm and then to Sasuke before sighing and moving ahead to fight the Grimm as well. Velvet nodded and looked ready to cry as Sasuke turned his back to her. Emert, Aurora, Nora and Ren all stared at him as he marched towards his friend.

"Come back to us with your friend!" Velvet ordered. Sasuke stopped and looked over his shoulder at her. A look of determination was in her eyes through her tears. "Save you friend that we want to meet! Save him!"

Sasuke nodded slowly and turned back to his friend as he killed the last Grimm before turning his attention on the former Uchiha. He tightened his grip on his sword and took a deep breath. _I will come back to you all. I promise._ He ran forward. Naruto dropped to all four and did the same. Sasuke jumped over Naruto and slashed at his back. Naruto screamed and turned to grab him. Sasuke disappeared with a quick replacement and landed far away.

He knelt down and formed Chidori. Naruto turned and snarled at him as he charged him. Screaming, Sasuke ran forward, dragging his jutsu along the ground. Naruto jumped. Sasuke cursed and stopped. Naruto landed and flung chakra arms out at him. They hit the ground in front of him, throwing up debris. Sasuke cursed as a piece of metal grazed his cheek and cut him deep. Dropping low, he tried again. Naruto flung more chakra arms out. Sasuke moved between at a slower speed. Sensing danger, Naruto canceled them and screamed with all his might to knock Sasuke down. The Uchiha pushed through it. He could feel his skin burn.

Naruto reeled back and threw a punch. Sasuke ducked under and drove his Chidori through his chest. Naruto coughed blood and screamed. Sasuke yelled and drove his arm further through his body. Naruto threw his head back as pain ripped through his form. Sasuke's Chidori sputtered into nothing as he slammed his head into his friends'. The link was completed.

Sasuke ran with all his might for the orb. It cracked again and a claw broke through the protective frame. "You leave him alone!" He pulled his sword out. Sasuke saw another clawed hand coming out of the darkness. Something touched his shoulder and suddenly the fist was behind him. Sasuke looked to his right and saw a shimmer of yellow. He turned back to the task at hand. He could question the sanity of what he saw later.

The orb was about to break.

Sasuke raised his sword and swung.

The orb shattered.

Kyuubi's clawed hand grasped the lifeless form of Naruto.

Sasuke's sword clove through flesh and bone.

Kyuubi screamed.

His hand fell to the ground in an ocean of blood before turning into a red cloud of broken chakra. Kyuubi yanked his stub of an arm back into the darkness with a yell of hatred on the Uchiha. Sasuke grabbed Naruto and ran for the exit. He huffed as he made it out and into a sewer. Looking back, he could see only rage within in the red eyes of the Kyuubi. He didn't care. He had what he wanted.

Setting him down, Sasuke knelt down close to him and gasped for air. His chakra was running out. He could only muster two charges with his Chidori. A third would kill him unless he used the power of the Curse Seal. The thought made him check his left arm. He couldn't see any sign of it. He didn't give it any thought and looked back at his sleeping friend.

"Hey," he lightly slapped his cheek. No response. Sasuke slapped him harder. Still no response. He shook him. Called his name. He hit him so more and then fell stood up with a blood tear sliding down his cheek. "I didn't… I didn't kill you. I saved you. I saved you! So why won't you wake up? Naruto! Please… I… I need you now. I need you get back up! Yell at me. Brag about how you're going to be Hokage! Anything! I need you do wake up and save my friends because I can't!"

Naruto didn't wake up for anything. Sasuke collapsed against the other wall and buried his face his knees. _I failed… I couldn't save him. I couldn't save Sakura. I couldn't beat Gaara. I couldn't beat Haku! I can't beat anyone. I can't save anyone!_ He punched the steel wall with his fist and cried. _I can't save my friends! I can't save anyone!_

The sound of footsteps made him pause in his thinking and look up. A woman with red hair and a dress was standing over Naruto. She leaned down and kissed his forehead. Naruto's body moved and his eyes cracked open. The woman disappeared in a puff of smoke. Tears slid down Naruto's cheeks as his eyes opened fully and he slowly got to his feet.

(Song ends)

"Naruto…?"

The blond looked at Sasuke and then around the place they were in. Panic set in for a moment before anger filled his eyes. "Sasuke! Let's go! We're going back to the village!"

Sasuke closed his eye and shook his head. "There's no time for that. I need your help. I promise I'll explain everything once this is over. Please, you have to listen to me!"

"Why should I?"

"Because innocent people are going to die and it'll be my fault if I don't save them. Please! I just moved Heaven and Hell to save you! Please! I'm begging you! Save them. Same my friends!" Sasuke got on his knees and bowed his head. "I'll let you kill me! I'll do anything! Save them. I don't have any more chakra to fight and I can't bear the thought of watching them die! I know I messed up by leaving the village but I wasn't myself."

Sasuke waited for the blow. He waited for death. He waited for the snarl that would come from Naruto. None of it came. He looked up and there was sad realization in his eyes. Naruto knelt down and looked at his missing eye. "I did that… in our fight?" Sasuke nodded slowly. Naruto looked at his hands and then his hair. It was long. Almost as long as the photos of the Fourth Hokage. "What happened?"

Sasuke shut his eye and sniffed as his blood tears dried up. He whipped the blood away. "You've been asleep for months because of our fight. You started having seizures a while ago and I think they might have been linked to the chakra that Kyuubi was infusing into you. The orb you were you in, I think someone threw that up to save you from being fully controlled by him after our fight ended. He was trying to drag you into the cell with him."

"It's been… months?" Naruto leaned against the wall and slid down.

"We're not in Konoha anymore. We're not even in the Elemental Nations. We're somewhere else and I've made friends that want to meet you. I changed because of you. Do you remember what you said to me at the end of our fight? You said it to me after I stabbed you with my Chidori the first time. You said I was your friend. I didn't hear it the first time. You said those words to me again and something snapped inside me. Maybe it was because we were here already and I was free of Orochimaru's influence by the Curse Seal. I'm sorry about what I did. And I will accept any punishment from you for my actions. But right now my friends need help and they want to meet you."

"Why would they wanna meet me?"

Smiling, Sasuke laughed. "I told them how strong you were. How brave you were. And I told them about how determined you were a hero to our village." He leaned down so he was eye level with him. His Sharingan was off. Naruto looked tired and warn out. "I don't have the chakra to fight those monsters the others are fighting. They're called Grimm. They might as well be creatures of pure darkness for what I understand about them." Naruto looked around and got to his feet. Sasuke did the same. "Save my friends. All I have is a sword now. I used the last of my kunai fighting the Grimm before you woke up."

Naruto nodded and took a deep breath. "Sure… It's not my nature to run away from a fight." He smiled and suddenly all of his energy was back. Sasuke envied that ability.

"My arm is in your chest. As soon I remove it, run for them. Help them. Do whatever you have to. Just save them."

Naruto nodded and coughed as reality hit him hard. Sasuke's bloody state greeted him and then the pain hit. Sasuke yanked his arm free and dropped. Naruto slumped forward as the healing energies of the Kyuubi took effect. His three-tailed state remained and he fought to keep control. The thought of releasing it came to mind, but when he looked to where the fighting was he knew that releasing it would mean death.

His injury was fully healed and he punched his fist into an open palm. Sasuke presented his sword. Naruto took it and examined it before looking at his pants. There wasn't much left to them. He sighed and looked at his friend. Sasuke was about to pass out from his injuries and chakra exhaustion.

"Don't worry, Sasuke," Naruto created a clone as he gave the sword a test swing, "I'll save them. Not a single one of them is dying today!"

(Nanatsu no Taizai Perfect time)

Naruto charged forward and appeared in front of the fighters and killed a dozen Grimm with in the blink of an eye. Everyone stopped fighting as Naruto's back was to them. He held the sword to the side and kept his head down. "I'm sorry," he said in a low voice, "but I don't have time to play with you! So I'm killing you all here!" Naruto became a blur of red as he cut limbs, tore off heads, punched through Grimm bodies and went on a murder spree.

Jaune gawked as two dozen Grimm fell over dead before the speeding red blur darted away to start slaughtering more Grimm. "What the hell is going on?!" Jaune asked in a terrified voice.

"That," a voice said from behind. They all turned to see Sasuke being held by Naruto, "is Naruto! He's back! And he's not going to let any of you die today!"

A Nevermore flew overhead. Everyone looked up as it took a nosedive before fading into black smoke. A red dot fell out of the smoke and threw out a red specter arm down to the ground. A dozen more Grimm showed up chomping at the air as Naruto came crashing down on them. Naruto roared and darted through each Grimm with blinding speed. They died before their heads fell from their bodies.

No one wanted to move or believe what they were seeing. No matter how large the Grimm was, it was brought down in one blow by the blond. Deathstalkers were ripped apart or blown away by a ball of blue energy. Beowolfs were cut down by Sasuke's sword in Naruto's hands. Ursa had their spikes ripped off and used against them. Boarbusks were crushed under the red specter hands. Griffons were swatted out of the air by his three tails. And when the alpha's showed up, it was over before their feet even touched the ground if they were jumping down on him.

If their bodies remained their corpses would be pilled as high as a two story building with the slaughter Naruto was putting on them. Nothing could escape his wrath.

A giant Nevermore flew down on him and sent a hailstorm of iron feathers at blond. Naruto roared and as loud as he could and stopped them in the air as his scream knocked them all back. The Nevermore lost control of its flight path as a result of the sonic boom that hit it from the force of his scream. It corrected its flight before it could hit the ground. Naruto threw up two chakra arms before it could get to high. It started flying away. Naruto screamed as he pulled back with both arms. He oversized bird froze in the air before Naruto yanked it right out of the air and sent it head first into the ground. With one final roar of power Naruto ripped off one of its wings and threw it away. The large wing disappeared before it hit the ground.

"You're the last one!" Naruto charged a large Rasengan in his hand right hand. "Once I take care of you! It's over!" He kept it pinned to the ground and on its back with his other arm. He raced along its belly and drove his signature Ninjutsu into its throat. It screeched loudly and blew out all the windows as Naruto drove his arm all the way to the shoulder through its throat. It gave one soft whimper before death took it. Naruto pulled his arm out and stepped back as its body disappeared in the black smoke. Huffing, he swung the sword and shook his head. "What a way to wake up," he mumbled in annoyance as he slowly walked to his friend and the others that could only stare with looks of praise or confusion to his actions. Sasuke laughed at Jaune's utterly confused expression. Naruto walked right up to him and smiled. "Job's done," he said with a thumbs up.

(Song Ends)

"Yes… Thanks… for saving them." Sasuke coughed and all of his strength faded. He was about to pass out.

Concern flashed in Naruto's face as he let go of his power. His red eyes turned to blue. The whisker marks returned to thin lines on his faces. His claws and fangs returned to normal human standards. "Hey? Which one of you is a medic?"

"None of us," a girl with bunny ears said. Naruto dispelled his clone and took Sasuke into his arms. She pointed to the large tower in on the cliff. "Get him there! They have a hospital there! He'll be safe!"

"Right!" Naruto dashed off with his friend in his arms.

Velvet smiled along with Coco as she adjusted her glasses. "Okay," Coco said with a smile, "I'm impressed by him."

"Same," Jasper said with a wide smile. "Not every day you meet someone that can rip a Nevermore that big in half almost." He laughed and tried to think of a known Huntsman or Huntress that could do that. None came to the mind. He shook his head with a big smile. "I can't wait to talk to him!"

"I think we _all_ can't wait to talk to him," Pyrrha corrected with a big smile. Nora was screaming about wanting to rip some birds in half while Ren looked ready to pass out. Jaune was still utterly flabbergasted by the whole event. Pyrrha put a hand on Jaune's shoulder and said, "Let's make sure the city is secure. We can't have any more Grimm running rampant through the city."

"That won't be necessary, Ms. Nikkos." They spun around. Ozpin was standing beside team RWBY and a man with golden hair and a staff in hand and a monkey tail. "We've already cleared out the remaining Grimm. Professor Oobleck and Port have made quick work of them in their areas with other teams. I believe now we should return to Beacon to tend to your injured." He looked up as a bullhead circled over them looking for a place to land. "And you are right, Ms. Nikkos. I can't wait to talk to him as well."

Pyrrha laughed nervously while the others started laughing. Glynda shut her eyes and looked around at all the devastation she was going to have to fix. She looked at her aura gauge on her Scroll and saw it was in the red. Everyone's aura, say for Ozpin's and team RWBY's was in the red. The fighting had taken a lot out of them.

Ozpin put a knowing hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. "I believe this can wait until tomorrow. We all need to recover before we start to rebuild." She sighed and nodded. The bullhead landed and she climbed in alongside Professor Port. He was giving a long winded speech on his success in the hunt. She wondered how he'd take hearing the story of a blond haired boy ripping a giant Nevermore practically in half.

A/N

Holy crap that was a lot of fun… So I re-watched Naruto vs. Sasuke and something came up that made me think, "What are they made of?" because Sasuke got thrown at a mountain about eight times at about eight different speeds! At one point he straight up had Naruto claw him into a mountain and then into the statue of Madara's stone foot. Let's also not forget that on several occasions Naruto punched him so hard he flew backwards. I actually think at one point when Naruto first went into his enraged form, before the tailed state, you can see Naruto's fist come out of Sasuke's back like a cartoon punch. Anyone else gets hit like that, and they're dead! Nevermind being thrown at a mount with various amounts of debris threatening to crush you! Seriously! Are they like pre-DBZ fighters or something. Naruto I can understand because he's been kicked through about different trees in one of the movies and got stabbed multiple times by Pein.

So either they have an ungodly high pain tolerance since only once Sasuke cried through their whole fight in the anime, or somehow all their nerves are shot and they don't feel pain but can feel someone touching them?


	10. Digging Your Own Grave!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 9

Naruto glared at the man in front of him. He was shifty and didn't like him. The man had a pleasured smile at his expression. Sasuke said the man helped him and was the only reason Naruto was capable of getting the medical attention he got while he slept, so Naruto was sort of at his mercy in terms of a debt that he would clearly need to pay.

Sasuke sat in a medical bed with bandages covering his chest and arms. Their fight had taken a lot out of the former Uchiha and the damage done to him was not something they could heal overnight. They also didn't have the healing arts that the people of Konoha had. They were stuck with crude and long waiting healing methods. Sasuke said he'd be fine, just like how the doctor said he'd be fine. Naruto had his doubts on the matter but was in no position to really argue. Sasuke did say that he wished he had Naruto's healing ability. Naruto doubted he meant the healing ability part of that.

The door behind the man parted and in stepped a woman with blond hair and a cap. She was talking on some sort of a device before she snapped it together and took a seat beside the man.

"Sorry I was late," she said unhappily. "Reports are calling in wanting an answer to the attack and what we intend to do about it since it was the second one this month."

"Well that one was caused by someone transporting Grimm into the city with a bullhead," Sasuke told her. He winced he tried to move his arm. Naruto had broken most of the bones in Sasuke's arm during their fight. The former Uchiha had fought through the pain the entire time before it finally caught up to him. "Naruto, this is Glynda and the other is Ozpin. They're two of the people that helped you recover during your stay at the hospital."

Naruto squinted his eyes on them. Ozpin's smile grew.

"I know you haven't been awake for long," Ozpin started. He adjusted his glasses as they threatened to slip off his face. Naruto nodded slowly. "So I'll keep this as brief as I can. I'm sure you must have an endless set of questions, but I ask that you wait to ask Sasuke about them. I am a busy man and while I do enjoy the thought of being able to speak with you further, the Grimm attack has my top priority as I must figure out who was transporting them into the city."

When Naruto didn't reply, Ozpin took a deep breath and started. "First, let me say that I am the headmaster of this Academy. I train huntsman and huntress to fight the creatures of Grimm and carry out missions that our clients want dealt with. We are more than simple soldiers. We are a fighting force meant to keep the peace and the world safe from more than just the Creatures of Grimm. As headmaster, I have say on who may or may not join my school. I would hope you don't answer quickly to this, but I wish to extend to you an invitation to join it. I know you are very far away from home and I give you this offer knowing that at some point you may find your way back home. Until such time, I wish for you to become a part of something more. I would like nothing more than to have you join my school."

"And if I decline?"

Ozpin smiled. "I wouldn't think less of you. This is a big thing. Sasuke said you would want to go home when you woke up. I've been working with others to try and find a way to get you back, but sadly, all my attempts have turned up nothing so far. If and when I do find a way to get you back, I will send you there if you still want to go home."

"Ozpin," Sasuke's voice was quiet. "Can you give us a minute? I need to talk to him in private." Glynda looked at him sternly as if she was silently warning him to think about his next set of actions. Ozpin nodded and tapped his cane before walking out. Glynda followed, albeit slowly. Once the door clicked shut, Sasuke exhaled and looked at his friend. "You are really stubborn and a handful when you're angry. I don't think you fought as hard last time to beat me."

"I was trying to break every bone in your body so I could drag you back to the village. Killing you was the furthest thing on my mind at the time."

"Is it on your mind now?" Naruto stared him down. Sasuke closed his eye and laid back down. "You can't go back to the village."

"Why?"

"Think of how much time has gone by."

"So? People are gone on long term missions all the time. Don't you remember our first mission out of the village? We were gone for about a week. Ero-Sennin was out of the village for months before he came back and started training me! So what if we've been gone a few months."

"It won't be that simple for either of us."

"Yes it will!"

"No it won't!" Sasuke huffed and felt his entire body start to ache. He was getting too worked up. This wasn't how he wanted it to go. He was hoping for something better. He shut his eye and took a deep breath. "It won't work the same way as it does for them, Naruto. I left the village to get power. If the others already returned to the village, what do you think that'll mean for you if you randomly show up with me over your arm with a missing eye? We both know what'll happen if we go back."

"Yeah! Sakura and everyone else will be happy to have you back and we start going on missions again."

"It won't work like that." Naruto opened his mouth to say something but Sasuke cut him off. "I know what'll happen to us. They'll read our minds and discover what happened. Say we go back in two months. You'll be slightly different, but probably not by much. I'll return with only one eye, my weapons, and not slung over your shoulder. You'll return with new weapons and probably act slightly different. So they'll read our minds and discover this place. But it's worse because in the end we'll be dooming Sakura."

"What do you mean?"

Sighing, Sasuke looked at the ceiling. He could see it all happening in his minds' eye. Sakura would be thrown in jail for conspiring with a traitor or killed. Either way, they'd make an example of her. She wouldn't be the exception. No matter what strings were pulled to try and lessen it, she didn't have a powerful family behind her. Sasuke could escape most of it, but sadly, he knew that his fate would be worse. They'd chain him up and use him to breed the next generation of Uchiha. He wasn't blind to any of it. He knew it would happen.

He took another deep breath and sat up. "On the night I left she approached me. I think she knew what was happening and wanted to stop me. She told me to stay. I refused. She said she wanted to stay by my side and that she loved me. I told her no. She said she wanted to leave the village with me. She was going to leave the village with me, Naruto, and that makes her a traitor. They'd question it when they read my mind and then turn to her. They'd discover the truth and she would be either executed or thrown in jail Do you think she could survive in jail? I don't think she can."

"You don't know that that's what would happen!"

"Yes I do! Just because you never paid attention in class doesn't mean I didn't. They went over it quiet well during class." Sasuke put a hand on the bridge of his noise. "Look, I'm sorry for yelling at you. I'm sorry for leaving the village. I'm sorry for trying to kill you. But right now, we need to think about what's best for this world since we're stuck here until Ozpin can find a way to send us home. Until then, we need to help them. I know that's what you're good at. I've been trying to be the better person and right now, having you yell at me about something I've been beating myself up about isn't helping. So please… just… try to understand my situation, your situation… and if we ever go back, Sakura's situation. She will die if we return because they will read our minds."

Naruto remained stubborn on the matter. Sasuke knew that deep down Naruto was not going to like this. Well hopefully he'd be better when he met the others.

(-)

"He was insane!"

Yang had her doubts about the whole story. With the exception of Blake, for obvious reasons, no one that wasn't there to see Naruto beat down a literal army of Grimm did not believe the story. It was a hard thing to process that a single person, human or Faunus, could do what this young man did. The very notion of someone with so much strength and speed and endurance was just a myth to someone like Yang. Her father was strong. Ruby was fast. Yang got crazy strong when her Semblance kicked in, but ultimately she was just super strong and had more endurance and toughness than anyone she knew had.

This was why everyone that had seen it was currently retelling the story to them and answering any questions about it. Ruby chimed in with their personal stories about how they killed a really big Ursa, but so far, nothing could really top Naruto ripped a Nevermore the size of the one Ruby killed during initiation clean in half almost. Blake only seemed believing because she actually met Naruto while he was still asleep and heard about his past from Sasuke. Yatsuhashi and Fox were still coming to terms with what they witness while Jaune was still trying to understand how Nora and Aurora could do no damage to him while he was still an enemy. Everyone else just seemed willing to accept the reality of someone being so absurdly powerful that his scream could generate shockwaves, he could sent out large specter hands to crush enemies or stop them in their tracks, move so fast the enemy died before their heads left their necks, and somehow could make a replica of himself that was fully solid and create a glowing orb in the center of his hand that drilled through everything it touched.

It sounded totally logical to them that someone could do all of that.

"So you expect me to believe that this Naruto person could move faster than Ruby?" Weiss asked for what might have been the third time. Ruby was practically drooling at the thought of another speedster. The fact he didn't have a weapon beforehand only made her want to meet him even more. Her mind was practically racing with ideas for weapons for him. Did he even have one? She hoped not. Weiss pinched her cheek when she caught sight of her daydreaming and snapped at her. "Stop daydreaming! This is serious Ruby! This Naruto person just made us, huntresses in training, look like children!"

"And what's wrong with that?" Blake asked. She sat her book down and continued when Weiss looked ready to yell at her. The events at the dock were still fresh in her mind, along with how she basically admitting to not only being a Faunus to them, but also a former member of the White Fang. "We are children, Weiss. No matter what you think we're still children and he just happens to be stronger than us because of how he was trained or raised. I mean, if you stop and think about it, perhaps Sasuke is just as strong as he is and he holds back for our sake."

"Sasuke did go toe to toe with him," Pyrrha told them. Weiss seemed even more unbelieving of the story when Sasuke came into the picture. "But he was a big help and he was terrifyingly powerful. Without his assistance I don't think we would have survived that ordeal. So we owe him a lot right now."

"You're just trying to make him sound better," Yang said with a laugh. When Pyrrha and Coco said nothing, Yang suddenly got the feeling that something was amiss. "What?"

"Our auras were all in the red. We weren't going to last much longer in a fight against those things. Before Sasuke managed to get him on our side, we were about to die to the Grimm." Velvet shivered at the memory of it all. Coco adjusted her glasses and continued. "Despite what you may think about our skills and the difference in skill because we're older, even we were hurt during the fighting. If it wasn't for Naruto's timely arrival, we wouldn't be here. In fact, Sasuke wouldn't be here either. He got him up here in a matter of minutes and the bullhead wouldn't have gotten him here any faster."

Weiss snorted at the very thought of such a thing. Until she saw it in person, she wasn't-

"Hey look!" Nora turned her Scroll around and showed them video that someone had handed over to a reporter. The image of a red aura covered blond haired boy was on screen. He was mauling a Deathstalker with his bare hands. When it tried to grab him with its pinchers, he reached over and tore the arm off. Given a weapon, he stabbed it right into the face of the Grimm and shoved it all the way through to the ground. It died. "See! He is strong!"

Weiss snatched it up as the video footage was replaced with a news reporter talking to a citizen. _"I don't know who he was, but he showed up out of the blue and just started ripping the Beowolves a part. They were like… paper to him. He tore them all to pieces."_

Another person, this time a Faunus with tusks coming out from the back of his lower jaw took the stage. _"He was incredible. I didn't get a good look at him, but I remember he had red slitted eyes and whiskers. It's nice to know that Beacon is training some really skilled Faunus. I'm happy to know that someone like him is using his power to protect us and not hurt us like the White Fang."_

Nora snatched it back and closed it. "See! He practically just saved us all and they had footage of him ripping everything apart!"

"I don't think I wanna get hit by this guy," Yang said fearfully. Her aura and Semblance allowed her to take a beating. But if she couldn't get back up from said beating, she wasn't going to return the beating. Yang took a bite out of her apple before noticing that Pyrrha and Coco were looking behind them.

Sasuke was walking with the man in question at his side. The two seemed to be in a heavy discussion about something as the blond was very animated about whatever they were talking about. Sasuke, sporting bandages on his arms and face, walked beside Naruto towards the line for the food court. Naruto wore one of Sasuke's shirt and his dark pants since it was clear he didn't have any after he woke up. Velvet kept her eyes on him as he suddenly stopped being animated about whatever they were talking about to scratch his head and laugh at something Sasuke said.

"He doesn't look like much," Weiss commented dryly.

"Neither do you," Blake fired back. Weiss turned her nose up at the jab and rolled her eyes. Blake watched them get their food and when Sasuke said something else to Naruto, the two paused, had a small talk, and then walked over to their table. Naruto held a large bowl of ramen and Sasuke held a tray with actual food on it. Blake sniffed it and almost drooled as she smelt the fish in the bowl. "How are your injuries, Sasuke?" Blake turned her attention to the former Uchiha. Sasuke raised a bandaged arm and scowled. "I'm sure that they'll let you into the training room for combat practice in a couple of days."

"I'm not really sure I want to do any more fighting after fighting this idiot." Naruto looked between the two with a large amount of noodles in his mouth. Sasuke rubbed the bridge of his nose while saying, "Can you please have some manners, Naruto?" as Naruto slurped up the noodles and gave him an annoyed stare.

"Hey," Naruto jabbed a finger into his chest. Sasuke winced as he was sure his bandages were now getting soaked with blood. "I've been asleep for about three months-"

"Five months!" Sasuke corrected with a hiss.

"-and I haven't had any ramen because of it! I'm eating my ramen and I will not take your shit on manners." He picked up the bowl and started wolfing it down, much to the amusement of Nora. He sat the bowl down and sighed in content. "I'm still hungry."

"You cleaned them out!"

"But I'm still hungry for more!"

"Oh my god," Sasuke put his head on the table. "Five months is all it took for me to forget how degrading your voice can sound when you whine." Velvet and Coco chuckled at Sasuke's plight. Blake had a pleased look on her face at his misery. Too bad Naruto was clearly suffering out this as well. Sitting up straight, Sasuke poked his friend in the head and pointed to the people at the table. "So these are my friends. We all sort of hang out during lunch or in this case: Days where we don't have school." 

"Haha! You're going back to school!" Naruto laughed and pointed at Sasuke.

The former Uchiha smiled. "Oh you're joining too. I'm not giving you an option."

"Fuck you! It's my life! I'll do what I want!"

"Did Ozpin give him a choice to join?" Pyrrha asked. This late into the year and they were getting a new student? Sure, there was such a thing as a transfer student from time to time or the occasional student that would leave. A few teams already lost members, either because they didn't like their teammates or because they couldn't handle the pressure of being here anymore. If someone like Jaune could do it, then she was certain that anyone could do it. Jaune tried really hard and got bullied, but he had a team that stuck by him. If they didn't, she feared Jaune might have left before the first week was over.

"That's the guy that spoke to you in the infirmary with me." Sasuke reminded.

"I know that!" Naruto snapped. It was hard to forget a man as shifty as him. Maybe he wasn't shifty? Maybe Naruto was just on edge and still completely pissed about their situation. It didn't help that Sasuke more or less gave Naruto the ultimate ultimatum: Stay here and start over or go back and ruin Sakura's life and your own in the process. Really, if Naruto was a cruel person, he'd go back to the village and just say fuck it before doing his own thing. Sadly, that wasn't an option for him because he wasn't that kind of person and the thought of starting over was a pleasing thought to him.

"I'm just used to you not remember names too well." Sasuke explained. Naruto grumbled. Sasuke coughed and pointed to each person in order. "Naruto, this is Yang, Blake, Weiss, Ruby, Nora, Pyrrha, Jaune, Ren, Emert, Coco, Persia, Yatsuhashi, Fox, Velvet, and Jasper. Ruby leads team RWBY which is comprised of herself, Blake, Yang, and Weiss. Coco leaders team CVFY which is comprised of herself, Velvet, Yatsuhashi, and Fox. Jaune leaders team JNPR, which is Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren. I lead team JSPR, which has Jasper, Emert, and Persia on my team."

"Why isn't your name at the start at of that?"

"Because our team name sounds cooler that way," Emert said with a shit eating grin. Naruto nodded, accepting his reason. "I'll be going back into town in a bit, Sasuke. A friend of mine is here and we're meeting up for the rest of the weekend. So I'll be gone."

"Cool… You wanna help me find him some clothes?" Sasuke jerked a thumb in Naruto's direction. Naruto looked unhappy as he glared at Sasuke's shirt and then sighed inwardly.

"I'd like to, but my friend kind of wants to spend time with me and doesn't like meeting new people."

"Okay then."

"Is it okay if I tag along?" Coco asked. Sasuke thanked the heavens silently as he nodded. Naruto looked at Coco and then to Sasuke as the former Uchiha looked as though a heavy weight was lifted from his shoulders. "I actually started planning for this the moment I got to see him when he was still sleeping in the hospital bed. I'm honored that you'd return to me for my fashion sense."

"My only request is that you don't put him in all orange. Do whatever you want with him. Just don't stick him in a full orange track suit or I will slap you." The smile on his face made it clear he was joking. Coco smiled back, but her smile was more predatory than an actual smile. Velvet trembled a little as she felt her spine shiver.

Naruto glanced between them again and narrowed his eyes before pointing at the sunglass wearing girl. "Are you part of his fan club or something?"

Coco removed her sunglasses slowly. Velvet scooted away and Sasuke shuddered at his own private memories of those days. Thank god those were behind him. Sadly, Naruto was not aware of the new friends Sasuke had and therefore, seeing most of them were females, would obviously assume such was the case. Jasper began cackling while Emert looked lost. Only Blake seemed to get where this was heading and slowly put a book marker in her book before shutting it. She was not going to miss this.

"Fan club, you ask?" Coco tapped her chin in thought. "I'm not part of this fan club that you speak of, but it does have my interest now. Tell me something, did Sasuke have a fan club at one point?"

Sasuke felt his entire world go cold. Coco was not acting how he expected towards the question. In fact, looking at her team, Ruby's team, and even Jaune's team, it was quiet clear that they had all expected a different outcome from Naruto question.

Naruto must have missed it and leaned back with a scowl. "Sasuke had all the girls in our village after him. Even our former teammate was like that. She did everything she could to kiss him and make babies with him. All of the girls were like that the day we started school. He was the guy that everyone wanted to be with. Even a few guys wanted to be with him."

Yang bit her lower lip and asked, "Do you… know how babies are made?" She made sure to word that correctly as Ruby was still very innocent, despite having the capability to practically murder everyone in their school with an oversized gardening tool. Their dad was a very protective person and looked after them with the utmost care. Yang wasn't even sure if Ruby had ever had that talk with their father. She hoped so because Naruto sure didn't strike her as someone who had a lot of tack.

"Yes… It was the one class I paid attention to." Jasper raised a hand towards the blond. Naruto blinked and then slapped it. Jasper chuckled and did the same to Emert. Persia grumbled while shaking her head. "History was boring to me and I suck at math."

"You say you sick at math and yet you never seem to have a problem making more than enough copies to deal with all enemies we encounter," Sasuke pointed out.

"I said I sucked at math. Doesn't mean I suck at it now."

"What's two times three?" Weiss fired off quickly.

"Five."

"You're a dolt!" Weiss told him while returning to buffering her nails.

"Is that the one with the sideways X or the one that goes up and down like normal?" Weiss get buffering her nails. "Damn it! I was asleep for several months. Plus I got dropped my head by someone when we fought last time." Naruto glared at Sasuke.

"It's not like I damaged much of your remaining brain cells anyways." Naruto rolled his eyes and missed the insult. "As much fun as this is," Sasuke stood up, having eaten all of his food in near record time, "I need to get Naruto some clothes and some weapons so he can start attending class. Despite what he just practically went through when he woke up, Ozpin wants to evaluate his combat skills."

"Um… Why?" Jaune asked. Sasuke shrugged. "You do realize that any evaluation done on him at this point would be pointless after he went and wrecked shop with those Grimm, right?"

"I'm still unbelieving of his physical strength…" Weiss told them. "An evaluation would put any naysayers like myself to shame for doubting him and the choice of Ozpin. So, it stands to reason that he would want to quell people like me that doubt this."

"There's video footage of it!" Jaune told her in a loud voice. "I saw it! My whole team saw it! Everyone but your team saw it! I don't even wanna fight him for practice matches he's so powerful." Naruto beamed happiness. Jaune took a calming breath as Pyrrha put a hand on his shoulder. "All I'm saying is that he shouldn't have to go through that when Glynda was there watching it all."

"Well… Maybe they want him to do it because they want to make absolutely certain it wasn't a fluke?" Yang didn't sound too sure of herself when she said that. Naruto shrugged. She flashed him a grin. "Well if you're going to town to get clothes and a weapon, do you two mind of I tag a long? The last day we went into town it didn't end well for us."

"I wanna go too!" Ruby shouted as she jumped to her feet. "I know some good weapon shops we can visit! I'll even help you build one if want it customized!"

"Maybe we should focus on clothes first," Velvet pointed out timidly. Naruto nodded and he once again glared at Sasuke's shirt he was forced to wear. It was either this or their school uniform. No way in hell was he wearing that stuff. That was a reason all on itself to not join their academy. "Would it be alright if I came along as well?"

"Sure," Sasuke walked off. He whistled and Naruto followed.

As soon as the two ninja were gone, Yang started laughing. "Sasuke had a fan club back home?" Jasper and Emert started chuckling into their hands. "I think I wanna talk to Naruto some more about Sasuke. You think he's got any funny stories on him?"

"Lord I hope he does!" Emert said with an evil cackle.

(-)

As soon as everyone was ready to go they were all loaded up onto a bullhead, much to Naruto's utter terror, and were quickly whisked away into Vale. Sasuke was utterly thankful to not be alone with his blond haired friend for this trip. He had expected a few people to come with him, but not all of team RWBY. He could understand why three of them would come, but not Weiss. Aside from that, Jasper decided to remain at their dorm, Emert was only with them since he was going to Vale anyways, and Coco and Velvet were tagging along to help pick out his clothes. Ruby pretty much tagged along to help Naruto find his weapon. Yang was tagging along because she was more than interested in learning any dirty secrets that Sasuke had. Blake was here because… She never gave a reason. And Weiss was here only because she had nothing better to do and secretly wanted to know more about him so that if and when they fought in the tournament, she could best him.

As soon as the bullhead landed, Emert disappeared with a wave.

"I know a good clothing store that's not too far from here," Coco told them as she started marching in the general direction.

Naruto followed mutely while the others all talked about something else. Sasuke made sure to stay at Naruto's side through the whole thing. He was a little angry about his moment with Velvet earlier. Naruto was either really forgetful or really stupid because not ten seconds after getting an explanation for what a Faunus was, he asked why Velvet had bunny ears. Sasuke wanted to slap him or stab him for it. The only silver lining in all of that was that he thought her ears were cute and left it at that. But knowing Naruto as well as he did, he knew that wouldn't be the end of it. Naruto kept periodically looking over his shoulder towards her as she talked with Blake and Ruby about something.

"What's on your mind?"

Naruto's head snapped to Sasuke's and the whisker faced blond grimaced. "Does she have a bunny tail?" Sasuke gave him a flat look. Naruto was generally curious about it. If he was a pervert he'd have gone back and ripped her skirt up to see. As tempted as it was, he wasn't that brave or stupid to do that in public. "I'm being serious."

"I know you are." Sasuke put his hands in his pockets. Funny. He had never thought on it either. He liked Velvet and opted to keep her safe when her team wasn't around but he hadn't ever thought much on other animal features she might have. The thought was fuel to the fire in his mind as he thought more on the bunny girl that he called his friend. "I don't know," he finally answered. He glanced over to his left and saw that Naruto was gone. He panicked and turned around. Naruto was walking beside Velvet and Blake. The two were chatting up a storm with him. _Damn it!_

Sasuke slowed down until he was walking slightly ahead of them and was within earshot.

"I don't think it's a wise idea to wear all orange," Blake told him sternly. Naruto whined. "For someone that is supposed to be all powerful, why would you tempt fate and wear something that makes you stand out?"

"But she's wearing all white. She stands out!" Naruto pointed at Weiss. He had already forgotten her name, despite learning it twice already.

"Yeah but if we push her in the snow, no one will find her," Yang defended. When she felt Naruto's gaze draw upon her, she fidgeted with her hair and said, "And I like the attention. It makes me easier to be noticed." Blake rolled her eyes when Yang smiled at her. It was a thing that went over Naruto's head, but it didn't stop him from assuming something different.

"Are you two lovers or something?" Blake shot him a glare that could kill while Yang sputtered and lost her cool. Turning his attention to the laughing bunny girl, Naruto asked, "Sorry if I'm being rude, I never got a chance to see many Faunus back home. I don't actually know much about them. But since you have bunny ears… do you have a bunny tail as well?"

Coco came to halt. Everyone stopped and Velvet, suddenly put on the spot, turned a deep shade of red. "That is a…uh…question I'd like answered too. No offense, Velvet." Yang told the bunny girl.

Velvet scratched nervously at her cheek before shaking her head. "Nope… I don't have a bunny tail." Naruto shrugged. He could feel Blake's anger on him. He ignored her. "Why do you have whisker marks? What sort of Faunus are you?"

"I'm not sure I am a Faunus." Naruto remembered what Sasuke told him. The story was that neither of them knew what he was since his parents had him the day they died. With no family and no real way of checking to see what he was, it made it rather hard to determine if he was a Faunus or normal human. Naruto didn't care about what the world saw him as, but with the story Sasuke came up with, it was going to be a tricky road. "Maybe I am and I just don't know it."

"If you were one, what kind do you think you'd be?" Coco asked. She resumed walking.

Naruto clicked his teeth together and thought about it for a split second. "A fox," he blurted out. Sasuke grimaced and looked at him with a little bit of worry. Naruto could hear screaming in the back of his head. Kyuubi was furious with the statement. He didn't think anything about it. "Foxes are cool… They're sly, cunning, smart… They have soft fur. Better than cats…" Naruto watched Sasuke go from annoyed to full on angry with him.

"Why do you say that?" Blake asked.

Naruto put his hands on top of his head and sighed. "One of the first real jobs we did while going to that academy in our home town was go rescue this persons' cat. It was a low ranking thing and we pretty much did it for the bills. But the cat had a terrible owner that would threaten to crush it with how much love she gave it. Tori was the cats' name. Anyways, the cat always hated me. We had to rescue that thing like eight times in one week once because it kept running away. That little fuzzy bastard would always cut my face up. "

"So you don't like cats because of one little house cat?" Ruby asked. She kept glancing at Blake in worry. Knowing the truth about Blake was now making this really hard. Even Velvet looked a little worried.

"Well not all cats are bad. My first experience with a cat was a black one that gave me bad luck for a week."

 _Keep digging your grave. Just keep digging,_ Blake thought.

"I like cats… but they're just so… I don't know, attention driven. Lot better than dogs though. They'll chew everything up and pee all over your stuff. Foxes… not really going to do anything but be sneaky." Naruto put his hands in his pockets. "Besides, why are cats held in such terrible fortune when foxes are held in high fortune? If foxes are supposed to be good why are cats bad? Should it be all animals have something good and bad to say about them in myths?" And with that, Blake thought more of him and was willing to let him off the hook. He did, surprisingly, make a valid point. "Are we almost there?"

Coco nodded with a smile. "We're here now." She shoved the door open to a white and pink building. They walked in. Naruto shivered and looked around. One side had only female clothes and the other side had male clothes. "So do we have any preference for things we need with him?" Coco made sure to address Sasuke and not Naruto. The rules were simple: He gets less orange and more of any other color. Naruto hated that rule and was already looking for something with a lot of orange. Yang was helping. "Do we need to go dark colors or brighter colors?"

"Let's keep this with something like what I wear for colors and be done with it." Sasuke sighed and look to where Naruto was holding up an orange shirt with a black triangle in the center of it. _So help me god if we put him in all orange I will kill myself and then him._ It was going to be a long day.


	11. One Step Forward and Two Steps Back

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

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Chapter 10

Ruby fiddled with her fingers as she watched Yang and Naruto talk about clothes and something else she wasn't paying much attention to. This was not her place to fit in. She was a girl, yes, but buying clothes was never really her thing. To her, clothes had to serve one purpose unless they were a battle outfit, then they had to serve two purposes. Right now they were looking for everyday kind of clothes. Yang was trying to reason with Naruto into wearing something with a little less orange and more gold and blue. Naruto wasn't having any of it. Ruby knew that as soon as they were in a weapon shop she'd be right at home. All she had to do was wait until they were at the weapon shop and she could proudly show her stuff.

Sadly, with as much time as they had spent at the store so far, that seemed like a forgone thing. Coco was reasoning with Sasuke on something about colors for Naruto's main battle outfit since the blond couldn't be trusted with such a thing. After he picked out an orange tracksuit, both said he didn't have a choice, much to his displeasure. The only silver lining out of it was that Coco and Sasuke were willing to let him wear anything else so long as his main combat uniform didn't have any orange. Naruto was more than happy to oblige to that and let them go back to trying to find something for him to use.

Ruby pulled out her Scroll and watched footage of Naruto fighting other Grimm to try and figure out what kind of weapon he might be able to use. It was clear he had abnormal strength with how he was able to rip off a Deathstalkers' clay and use it against it to kill it. But then there was his supposed victory over a Nevermore that he ripped in half. Until video footage of that came out, Ruby wasn't going to believe it either.

Her mind raced with ideas for his weapon. Sasuke made it clear that they came from the same place and went to the same school. Naruto's fighting style was more like Yang's than it was Sasuke's. But the basic principle was still the same. Naruto was fast just like Sasuke. Both fought with the purpose of getting in and getting out in quick succession. Naruto had some skill with a sword, given how many Grimm he slew with it, but also, Sasuke had mentioned during their time together that Naruto used similar weapons like himself. So that ruled out guns as a whole unless he was down to try them. She had no problem finding a weapon shop that sold classic weapons.

So if Naruto had brute strength, speed, and endurance on his side, he obviously needed just a normal weapon to get by with. She couldn't see him with a sword just like Sasuke's. That was out of the question as far as she could see. Naruto swung it with such ease that the weight of it might have been nothing to him. He might as well have been swinging a piece of glass with how careful he was with the thing. Never once did he strike the sword on anything harder than soft flesh as if he were fearful to break it. So he needed something that could take a good impact from him. Naruto would want a bladed weapon, not something dull and flat.

The couch she was sitting on bounced, dragging her from her thought. Weiss had plopped down beside her and was watching the two parties try to find clothes for the blond as he stood with a set of outfits in hand that he was being ordered to try on. "I can't believe Ozpin is going to allow someone as young as he is in to Beacon," she said with a huff of annoyance.

Ruby shrugged. "Well, he did let Sasuke in. Perhaps it's because of how strong he is. I mean," she laughed despite how serious she was trying to be, "he did practically save the city. If Ozpin didn't let him in, it might show Vale that he's not taking in the best of the best. How do you think it would look to the rest of the world if an independent Hunter shows up that's younger than the best Hunter in the world and does what he just did? I'm sure Ozpin is just covering all of his bases to make sure people don't assume the worst about us?"

Weiss wasn't sure if she believed that. Ozpin already made a mistake in letting Blake join. Despite her position on the matter, learning the truth was still a hard thing for her to swallow. It was harder than admitting to the world that she knew her father was in the wrong about a lot of things. Her hatred of the White Fang was justified, but her discrimination on all Faunus was not. She came to the defense of her father on more than one occasion and knew that deep down she shouldn't. Why did she have to defend his name when he was dragging it through the mud? He should defend himself.

But the cold truth was that Weiss was his daughter and it was her duty to be there in the defense of her family name, even if it meant defending her father.

"No. I think it has more to do with the fact he wants to do right by both of them." Blake sat down beside Ruby and watched as Naruto came out wearing one of the outfits. Sasuke and Coco shook their heads and he became animated about it. When Yang shoved him back in, Coco and Yang shared a quick grin of victory before talking with Sasuke about something. "Naruto had a hard life growing up, just like Sasuke. I think he wants to make sure that they use their skills for good and not evil intent. Naruto could easily pass as a Faunus and probably is one, so he wants to keep him from the White Fang if he were to meet them. Imagine if they had him on their side?"

Weiss could see it, if she were to believe the stories. Her family's company would be destroyed. Nothing would be left standing if his power was real and was turned on them. Not even Atlas could probably stop something like him if he was really as powerful as they were lead to believe. Could Atlas stop him if he was a member of the White Fang? If Ozpin was letting him join to keep that from happening, she would let it all slide, but really, she didn't think that was the reason. There had to be more to it. Naruto didn't even seem to care about coming to the Academy either. He actually told Sasuke he didn't want to join. Who in their right mind would pass up a chance to become something more than just a regular soldier for hire? Naruto was being given the chance to become a Hunter without even going to a combat school.

It boiled down to one question: What was Naruto?

Blake released a tired sigh as she watched Naruto come out wearing another outfit. Yang and Coco looked at him funny while Sasuke crossed his arms and shook his head. Before either of the three could say anything to him, Velvet walked over with something else. She spoke to them for a brief moment and then put it in Naruto's arms. He gave her a questioning look before complying. He walked in wordlessly and the four began talking anew. Blake caught part of what they were talking about, but she was more focused on her thoughts about Naruto.

He couldn't possibly be a Faunus. Not many Faunus would be lucky to have features like him. There were those that got lucky and had only claws or some other animal feature that was easy to hide. Blake liked being able to hide her ears with the bow, but her nervous tick of moving them to every sound would shatter that illusion. Naruto had only whisker marks that could easily be passed off as scars or even tattoos. No one would think twice about what they were or how he got them.

But his recent questions towards Velvet did have her curious as to whether or not he knew what a Faunus was at all. There were very few cases of Faunus retaining more than one feature. The chances of it happening were so rare that it was next to impossible without the aid of technology to achieve it. Even then there was a less than one percent chance of it even taking. So why on earth would he ask such a question? Sasuke never once stated that they lived in a village without Faunus so there wasn't a chance in hell that they never came across one. Plus, with the White Fang all over the news, there was no way Naruto wouldn't have seen one. His earlier statement about not seeing any was off putting and left Blake curious on how he never saw one to begin with.

"I'm not a fan of it!"

Blake looked up from her thinking pose to see Naruto looking down at his attire and then to Sasuke. The former Uchiha didn't like it one bit, but Coco was more than willing to admit it had some taste to it. He just happened to be missing something that tied it together.

Naruto wore black pants with an orange strip running down the front, a long sleeved black shirt with a golden fox in head in the center of the chest, and a short sleeved white haori that ended halfway down his calves with orange flames coming up from the bottom of it. Naruto seemed to enjoy it. It had some orange on it. He was happy with as much as he got. He didn't really like the fox head on his chest, but he was willing to go with it if only because it was given to him by Velvet.

"Well I like it!" Naruto beamed and grabbed Velvet, pulling her in for a hug. The bunny girl blushed at the contact and looked a little shy about being put on the spot. "We got all my clothes, right?"

"I feel like this goes back on our agreement." Sasuke told him. Naruto deflated. "But I guess you'd just dye it orange anyways so it'll work. Just don't wear it all over the place. We have other clothes for you now." Sasuke whistled and the three girls that had been sitting around doing nothing jumped to their feet. "We're paying out and going to a weapon shop."

Ruby cheered and raced over to Naruto. "So what kind of weapons do you like?"

"Naruto go change into your others clothes so we can pay for that stuff," Sasuke ordered. Naruto stuck his tongue out at him and returned to the changing booth. A moment later he returned and shoved the clothes into Sasuke's hands. "Thank you!"

"I will eat your unhappiness."

Sasuke smirked and marched off with the clothes in tow to pay for them. Ruby marched up on him and grinned as the clothes were paid for. Naruto immediately tore out one of the orang t-shirts he had received and threw Sasuke's long sleeved shirt inside. Yang chuckled endlessly as the former Uchiha grimaced and shuddered at the sight of the all-orange shirt with a black tribal design on the chest. Naruto was super pleased by and ripped the tag off. He stuffed it in his pockets as they marched outside.

"Have you no decency?" Weiss demanded, angry that Naruto had changed shirts right in front of her and in public.

"Not really," he confessed, earning grins from Yang and Coco. "So I have to get some weapons now, right?" Ruby slid right up to him and put her arm through his as she started marching, dragging him behind her. "Aren't we supposed to be following them?" he asked fearfully.

"Nope!" Ruby chimed, happy to finally have some limelight with the supposedly strongest thirteen year old in the world. The others trailed behind her slightly as Ruby started probing for more information on him. "So how do you fight? Are you in and out quick type? Charge straight at the enemy and just mow them down? What sort of fighter are you?"

"He's like me," Sasuke answered before Naruto could say anything. "Though our styles our different, he got the same training I got. So you can expect him to be someone with a lot of tricks up his sleeve, really fast, really strong, and in need of more than just a sword. He is getting weapons similar to mine unless he also wants a sword. That's up to him. But the other items are needed." Ruby nodded in understanding and continued to probe the blond for more information. Satisfied, Sasuke slowed his pace so that he was walking beside the others, giving Ruby and Naruto enough space to actually talk about his weapon on their own. "I think we screwed up by giving an orange shirt like that."

"Why?" Velvet asked. Yang picked that one out. Yang was proud of it.

"He'll never take that one off."

"So?" Yang asked, unsure of what he meant by it. She had shirts she wore all the time because she liked them. She already did her laundry the other day and she was back to wearing the same shirt she the same day she did laundry. It was just hard to see under her coat.

"No I mean I don't think we'll ever see him out of that." Sasuke explained further. "Although," Sasuke paused and looked at the back of his friend, a thought tugging at the back of his mind, "perhaps the whole reason he wore the same clothes all the time was because he really didn't have anything growing up." Blake became unhappy and looked at the blond as Ruby became animated about the weapon choices. Weiss looked a little indifferent, still finding Naruto's previous actions to be displeasing. "He wore this tracksuit all the time. He never changed his clothes. But the more I think on it that might have been because he didn't have any other clothes. He wasn't liked in our village so it wouldn't be that much of a leap to assume that he couldn't get stuff."

"If they thought he was a Faunus, I could see it." Blake confessed sadly. Before she started hiding her ears she had the same problem. She'd walk into a store and be sent out with glares, unable to purchase anything. It was a tough life and only the strong survived. Blake made sure she was strong. 

Sasuke fell into a deep thought as he once more thought about what their next course of actions was. Naruto was still not on for joining Ozpin and coming to the academy. He could understand Naruto's logic behind not wanting to join. Why go back to school when he was a fully fledge ninja of their village? What was the point? And even then, Naruto would feel like he was betraying Konoha by coming to Beacon to be a student. Sasuke knew he was going to have to talk to Naruto about that. If anything, Ozpin might have something else that he could do if he opted to not join come to the school as a student.

Sasuke was yanked from his thoughts as they rounded on a weapon shop where Ruby had stopped and was talking to Naruto about something. Sasuke and Weiss hung back to watch as the two talked and ignored most of their conversation as they looked at the weapon shop and to the people passing by on the street. Blake said something to Naruto and Coco responded for Naruto. When Coco replied for Naruto, Velvet said something else and they walked inside. Sasuke followed them in after Weiss marched inside.

Blake split from the others to look at the merchandise with Sasuke and Weiss. The three looked over various projectile weapons from bolts to shells. Sasuke took no interest in the rounds or the arrows and favored more to the various sizes of kunai and shuriken. The desire to get more was strong, but sadly, Naruto needed them more than he did. Their fight before they arrived here cost him all of his supplies. The only thing Naruto still had to his name was his headband that he still wore and the necklace. So this was a trip purely for him. Sasuke could return later if he needed to, but as of right now, he didn't need anything.

Blake picked up a kunai and glanced it before losing interest in it and setting it down. Weiss was looking at various books on fencing. Despite her rise to in rank for their fights, Weiss knew that it was only a matter of a time before someone figured out how to predict her movements for her fights. While unknown to her that Sasuke had already figured it out, along with others such as Pyrrha and Emert, it was becoming far more difficult for her to actually stand toe to toe to people like Ren or even Persia. Her fencing skills were all about being fast and precise. No matter how fast she was, if they could predict her target, she wasn't going to hit them.

Sasuke glanced over to where Ruby and Yang were talking with Naruto about his type of weapons. He was favoring kunai and shuriken and nothing else. Sasuke took a deep breath as he rounded on his friend and jabbed a thumb outside. "Let me borrow him for a second, okay?" Ruby nodded, feeling dejected that Naruto didn't like her opinions on weapons. Naruto sat the kunai in question down where he got it before following the raven haired shinobi out the door. As soon as the door clicked shut, Sasuke asked, "So you're not getting a weapon from here?"

"I'll get the kunai and shuriken, but I don't need any other weapons."

Sasuke could honestly see where Naruto was coming from with that. True, in the shinobi world, Ninjutsu and kunai were your best friends. It made killing people easier if you weren't wielding a fuck-off huge blade or something completely impractical like a hug fan to blow people away. But, when compared to normal kunai, even specially made kunai, a sword would have a longer reach, meaning if you were to afraid to try and get closer, you weren't getting up on them to do your job with the kunai. Of course, the reverse to that was that if they got in to close to you, you're sword, no matter how small or long, was practically useless.

But this wasn't their world. They weren't fighting other humans… yet. Their enemy would be Grimm; monsters with a hunger for destruction and the annihilation of all human life. True, there were criminals out there like the White Fang, but Sasuke couldn't see a bunch of First Year students going down to fight a highly trained and highly motivated and armed group of terrorists anytime soon. This wasn't their world where their first mission away from the village was a lie and they were sent up against Zabuza and Haku. It just didn't work like that here. Sasuke already got a chance to see how the board actually worked for jobs. If Ozpin or Professor Scar wasn't letting you take the job because it was too difficult, by god, you weren't getting it. And no amount of whining or saying you were ready was going to cut it either.

"Fair enough," Sasuke admitted, but his eye told Naruto he wasn't allowing him to get just kunai. "I know why you'd think kunai would be better. We grew up using them and nothing else. We learned how to fight with them. We learned how to throw them. But we learned how to do that by fighting each other in the preparation for fighting other ninja. We weren't learning it to fight monsters like what we face now. So having a practical weapon, something that has some reach, isn't a bad idea. Even Fox, who would rather punch his enemy into the ground, has bladed gauntlets for fighting. Even if you don't take a sword or anything that you have to wield with both hands, at least get something that can be practical when fighting these things. You can't punch or kick or Rasengan all of these things. Are you going to rely on that red power of yours when you fight these monsters?"

Naruto gave him a dead stare. The thought hadn't really gone that for far him. Sasuke may have had a point, but his point was still unheard to him. "I never got training for anything other than kunai," Naruto told him, trying to cut his losses before anything else major come up. "I'm not like you. We're different, Sasuke. You were always the one that was precise and knew how to work every angle. You have a fighting style… a real one. I'm a brawler. I hit you and you will fall. That's how I am. You can use a sword. I can't."

"I could teach you." Naruto made a disinterested noise. "Naruto, just because things were different back home doesn't mean they'll be the same here. No one knows the truth about you. And there are people in that shop right now that actually are interested in you. Blake touched your whisker marks when you were lying in bed asleep while in the hospital. Coco wanted to meet you when she heard about how powerful you were. Pyrrha even said she wanted to get to know you. You have people that want to spend time with you. And I bet that if you ask for help, they'll help you learn how to use whatever weapon you want. I'm not asking you to get a sword. I'm asking you to go in there and get something that you think you can use and not lose a finger to. It doesn't have to be like Ruby's scythe or even Blake's swords."

"That still doesn't change the fact that I don't want them. I've never had a problem fighting the way I do now."

"I know that." Sasuke exclaimed. He sucked in a deep breath when he saw Yang with her face pressed comically against the window. The shop keep inside was shaking his head, clearly unhappy with her. "Look," Naruto looked away from him, arms crossed and an angry expression on his face, "Just go in there and pick out something. You can't tell me that you never walked into one of the shops in Konoha and wanted a weapon that they wouldn't give you. I know you. You were hated in our village because of your power. I know that now. So this is your chance to get something, anything, and learn how to use it. I'll help you if I can. I'm sure that if you really look hard, there are students at that school that would stop to help you. Just… give it a chance. You don't even have to use it. I never use my sword in my matches because I'm terrified I'll kill someone with it."

Naruto sighed and looked back at the weapons in the shop. He saw Yang with her face pressed against the glass and then saw Ruby doing the same, both looking like dorks. Weiss was clearly agitated by their behavior and was doing her best to show she wasn't with them. "Any kind of weapon, right?" Sasuke nodded. "No matter how impractical it is, you'd help me if possible?" Sasuke nodded again. "Fine then," Naruto grumbled, marching back into the store. He walked over to the swords where Blake was perusing them and stopped at one. He picked it up and unsheathed it slowly. Sasuke visibly recoiled at the sight of it. "I'd like something like this," he said plainly.

Blake took the weapon before Sasuke could grab it and examined it. Everything about was fairly normal. It was your standard katana. The hilt was wrapped in golden and orange cloth with a tribal design at the end of it where the two separate colors of cloth converged and became two long tassels that dangled a good four inches before being tied into a knot at the end. The guard was red with a small oval shaped form to it with the same tribal design carved in to it. But the blade was unique. Despite being a dark blue with a slightly wider frame to it and less of a curve, the sharp side of the blade was on the wrong side.

"You can't be serious," Sasuke said flatly. Naruto gave him a blank stare as if daring him to go back on his word. _Well,_ Sasuke thought bitterly, _it wasn't really a bad choice._ All things considered, Naruto wouldn't need to really cut someone with it if he used it on anyone that was human. Naruto had enough strength behind him that probably having that weapon swung at full force to any part of the human body would remove a limb or break everything he hit. Plus, if Naruto could actually force chakra over the blade to increase its cutting proficiency, who cares if the weapon had the blade backwards? It would make a good surprise to anyone if he could do it and use it on someone. Losing a limb or two in front of someone else would put a deep seeded fear in them.

"It's not impractical," Blake defended. She took the sheath and slid the blade home before returning it to Naruto. "It shows a sense of honor and decency towards life. It speaks volumes about his character. He chooses to view all life as sacred and would rather not be forced to kill if presented with a chance to do so." Somehow Naruto thought that sounded right and accepted it. Truthfully he was getting to be an asshole towards Sasuke, but if she liked it and looked that far into it, then hey, he wasn't complaining. More win for him then. "But it does present a problem for fighting Grimm, but I suppose you'd just flip the blade over." Blake finished.

"Or I could just stab them with it," Naruto told her plainly. Blake rolled her eyes and gave him a light chuckle. Naruto blinked and looked to Sasuke for a moment before saying, "I'm more for fighting with my fists than a sword. Really, I'd rather use kunai, but if we're going up against Grimm all the time, I'd rather have something I can use safely anyways."

"Well if you fight with your fists," Yang began as she walked over to another part of the shop. Naruto put his sword on the counter. Sasuke walked over and grabbed a few kunai and shuriken to set on the counter. "Why not try something like these?"

Yang held in her hand a pair of silver gauntlets with bladed fingers and knuckles. They were barely capable of fighting his arm, but it was clear that the shop keeper probably had more in different sizes in the back. This was just a display case. Naruto looked them over, taking them in hand as Yang continued.

"Normally you'd put a gun on these babies like what I did with mine, but if you're like Sasuke, I doubt you'd like that." Naruto nodded without really paying attention. He heard 'gun' and 'Sasuke' and knew that it was a negative thing. "Since you say you like fighting with your fists, this would work as something you can use on the Grimm as well as giving you some protection when fighting them. Sasuke said you don't have an aura shield and that you can recover from almost anything lethal to a normal person. So I assume that means you don't care much for complete protection. This can give you that. And you'd have the option of either stabbing them through with your hands-since you're absurdly strong and could probably do it without them-or punching them straight into paste."

Naruto tossed it in the air a few times and considered it. It was more his style. If he could punch someone, even Sasuke, with this kind of weapon, there was no way you were just getting back up. His knuckles were hard as stone, but even then, getting hit by a full blown punch on top of something that was bladed and metal wasn't really going to make you wanna get back up unless you were crazy or had a death wish. Sasuke even seemed pleased by the choice when he glanced over to see what Sasuke was doing.

"You sold me," Naruto said quickly. "Do you have anything like that for my tiny arms?" The shop keep nodded mutely and went into the back of the shop. Naruto walked up to Sasuke and looked at the kunai. They were so much like his own back home that he felt a small bit of nostalgia. Sad that he hadn't been awake for long to really miss Konoha just yet and he was already feeling that way. His eyes danced over the rest of the weapons before something else caught his eye. He reached down into another set of displays where kunai were brought out. These ones were silver with a wooden handle and three blades to them. The two extra blades forked off the main blade.

Naruto blinked and in that single moment he saw an image of a man with blond hair wearing a haori appear in his mind. In his left hand he held a kunai similar to these, but the handle was wooden and sporting several seals along it. Naruto opened his eyes and the image faded from his mind. He put the other kunai away and put ten of the tri-bladed ones on the counter. Sasuke gave him a curious look. Naruto remained somewhat quiet and detached for the briefest of moments. Sasuke didn't bother asking why. His mind raced back to being inside Naruto's and what he saw before he could cut Kyuubi's paw off. He could have sworn he saw a weapon similar to that one flying through the air. Perhaps he was just trying to fill in a missing puzzle pieces with this?

The shop keep returned and put the gauntlets on the counter. He rang them up and Sasuke presented Ozpin's card. The man scanned it and gave it back, smiling as he did. Once their purchase was complete it was all sacked up and they marched out. Naruto remained quiet as Ruby rummaged through the bag, despite disapproving looks from Weiss and Blake to pull out one of the oddly shaped kunai. She marveled at it and tested it by lightly stabbing her finger with it. Without her aura to shield her, it was easy for the point of the blade to pierce her flesh and release a small droplet of blood.

"Why would you do that?" Yang demanded, taking the weapon before her sister could hurt herself with it again. Ruby sucked on her finger, offering an odd shrug as she sucked on the blood. "I doubt these things are clean, Ruby? You might have just gotten tetanus or something!"

"Sorry," she said with her finger still in her mouth. "I just wanted to see how sharp it was."

Naruto took the weapon away from Yang and stuffed it back in his bags. "It's okay," he confessed, coming from his own stupor. "I'll be doing the same when I get to the dorm I'm staying at." Naruto was neglecting to say that if he did it, he'd heal instantly. While the mystery of what aura could do for anyone was something Naruto had no understanding of, he knew that a small puncture wound would probably be gone in an hour or so given how fast most people could heal from even something like that. Then again, a simple stab to him was a kunai through his entire hand and that healed overnight unless he was using Hinata's awesome healing cream. Then any injury he had was healed instantly.

"That's not healthy," Velvet berated, staring worryingly at him. Naruto blinked and looked at the clouds overhead. He wasn't used to a girl really worrying about him. It was a new change of pace. Sort of like how Sasuke was friendly, offering to help him learn how to fight using a sword. "So I think that clears up everything we need to do today," she said, returning to her normal cheery self. "Let's go back to the academy and get something to eat. I'd rather not waste money down here in Vale when we can eat for free back at the academy." Cheap as ever, Naruto was willing to agree. At the mention of food his stomach rumbled and he whined silently. "And you won't be eating ramen this time around," she told him sharply. "It stunts your growth."

"Is that a short joke?" Weiss and Ruby said sharply. They slapped hands and gave Velvet a curious glance as if begging her to continue with what she was saying. The shy bunny girl backed off with a light smile and moved to the other side of Naruto where Blake and Sasuke were walking. "Let's just get home," Weiss told them, practically ordering them all. "I'm hungry and the food at the cafeteria will be better than what we can get here."

The group nodded, happy with their work on getting the blond hair youth some weapons and clothes. Now if only he'd join Beacon and become a student…

A/N

Naruto's weapon of a choice is the Reverse Blade Sword for a reason. Blake sort of explain part of the logic behind it, but Naruto was also doing it to be an asshole towards Sasuke, like his one final act of defiance against him. The tri-kunai are actually one of more favorite kind of weapons in the Naruto universe and not because his dad used them. Other people used them too, it was just that Minato actually made them unique with what he did. I think it was someone from Suna did made them unique and then Minato went and did his flying thunder god stuff with it. Naruto's outfit is a darker version of his sage outfit from when he fought Pein. That was, to me, his greatest outfit. Even though the only thing that changed was that he was given a sage a coat, it was still the best to me. I loved it. Naruto's going to go through a minor set of moments where things are shifting for him, some in a good way and some in a bad way really because to him, as Sasuke sort of put it, Naruto sees this as betraying their village. So he has to get sort of get over that hill before he can really start to be more like the person we all know and love around Sasuke. Around the others, he's not going to care too much and be his usual goofy self, but any time he's around Sasuke, until he works this part of his life out, he's going to be a little defiant towards him.


	12. The Words Spoken Through Fists!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

This story is entirely fan-made and fictional. Any acts that you might find offensive, disguising, inhuman, wrong or just don't like, we are not liable for. You are reading this story of your own free will and not being forced, if you don't like something we are not forcing you to stay and read it. Please leave the page and re-frame from reading the chapter and or story. All Copyrighted Characters belong to their respect owners. We don't claim anything that is not our own creation and are merely using them for fan made material.

We accept constructive criticize and help but being rude and disrespectful will not be tolerated. This is done for the fun of writing not to make every little person happy, while making people happy with are stories is great we are not here for Money, Fame or Fortune this is done for the simply joy of writing.

Chapter 11

"Konoha won't welcome us back with open arms, Dolt."

Sasuke rubbed his eye as it started to itch. Their talks were going slow. Things were not at all working how anyone wanted it and with Naruto being as stubborn as a mule, it was only going to get worse as classes started and Sasuke would be forced to attend them. God forbidden Ozpin let Naruto loose to his own devices. Some part of the school would be fucked up by some means and Naruto would somehow either skate by without being caught, which would be funny and a testament to his own sneaking skills, or would get caught and be forced to clean up his mess. Either way, Sasuke was banking on this going well past the desired time limit and him being forced to leave Naruto along with Glynda and Ozpin in their office as they discussed his future.

Shame that Naruto was still being stubborn, the dumb bastard.

"You're a real bastard, you know that, Sasuke?" Naruto looked livid. For thirty minutes these talks had gone on with more heated words and insults being thrown around by Naruto towards Sasuke. Ozpin had all the time in the world, and probably more if the grin on his face was any indication. Glynda was another story. Neither shinobi was sure if she was livid by the wasting of her time that these two were using up or their choice words. She had remained oddly silent through it all. "How can you say that they won't welcome us back with open arms? Why are you still hung up on that?"

Sasuke glanced back at the clock that was in the corner of the room. If he looked at Naruto right now he was going to punch him. "If we go back, we do more harm than good."

"That's your excuse and your stupid believe!" Naruto growled. "I swear to god that I'm going to break every bone in your body and find a way home today!" Sasuke made a disbelieving chuckle and shook his head. "You doubt I can do it?"

"I doubt you can do either of those." Naruto bristled, ready to prove him wrong on at least one of the two declarations. "Look, fighting won't solve anything. And is this really that bad of an offer?"

No. No it wasn't that bad of an offer. Any sane person would take it. But Naruto was hardly sane when it came to things like this. He was thirteen years old. He was being given a chance to come to Beacon Academy, becoming a student and finding a team next year. Ozpin was even promising to find him help for school work to get him caught up on everything there was to know about Remnant. Who wouldn't pass up this chance? Naruto just happened to be the one person in the world that would and was passing it up. To him, this was the ultimate betrayal to Konoha. As a ninja of Konoha, he had a duty to protect it and remain faithful to their cause. To go against it was to turn his back on the teachings and his friends. This was worse than abandoning his friends. This was abandoning his village, his home, his nation, and his dreams. To Naruto this was more than just a way to live and be useful for their time they'd have here. This was a declaration of abandonment that wouldn't go without punishment.

But the worst thing wasn't even losing his dreams.

No the worst thing was that he was breaking a promise to Sakura. How could he so blatantly turn his back on her? If he joined, that was proof of his broken promise. He vowed to bring Sasuke home. He was right here, sitting next to him, smug as could be, and not wanting to leave. He was even trying to talk him into joining a school to make his life better and do the right thing this time around. No one was even given the golden chance like this. Naruto was being given a second shot at life to correct mistakes from his past and live the life of a normal thirteen year old boy. And he was turning it down all because of his pride and devotion to a village that would turn children into killing machines for the slaughter and made money off of their standings in the Chuunin Exams where their lives could very well end.

How fucked up was that?

Naruto grabbed Sasuke's collar and dragged him out of the chair. "Look you bastard," he snarled, his eyes flickering between red and blue, "I'm not joining not because I don't intend to stay here, but because it means I'll have abandoned the village just like you have! You think you can threaten me with Sakura's wellbeing?! What sort of a person does that to his own teammates?!"

Sasuke broke Naruto's hold and glared at him. For once, Sasuke had become angry. He glanced to the two adults in the room for a brief moment. He could see Ozpin's curious look, the one eyebrow slightly arched, his fingers stapled together and hiding the lower half of his face. He could see Glynda pushing her glasses up after they had slid down just enough when she lowered her head and tilted it in a way that begged for more information.

There were things Sasuke had neglected to inform them about. Among the many things he had kept from them, Sakura was his biggest secret. What would Ozpin have thought of him if he told him he knocked out his female teammate when she begged to go with him? Would he have thought it noble to keep her away from their blood fighting? Would he have thought it terrible to do the unthinkable and attack his own teammate, knocking her out and leaving her to question the path he was following, never knowing that his path would be a dark and twisted one had Naruto not stopped him?

Sasuke ran a hand through his hair, a slight nervous tick he picked up from watching Emert do it too many times when put on the spot by a teacher. "There was another teammate we had," Sasuke told them. Ozpin gestured for him to continue. "Her name was Sakura Haruno. She was the one that alerted our village to me leaving. She confessed to me that she wanted to leave with me. I told her no. She said she'd call the guards. I thanked her and…" Sasuke stopped there and looked away, ashamed at his own previous actions. If she had followed them… would she be proud of him? Would she want to stay by his side?

"He attacked her," Naruto finished with a scowl. Glynda adjusted her glasses again, pushing them up slowly and a little further up. Her expression was one of quiet rage. Sasuke had seen her angry plenty of times at people like Ruby, Yang, and on rare occasions Emert or Jasper. But this was a different sort of rage. She looked unhappy by both his reluctance to give them this information and that he would attack a fellow teammate. Both were unacceptable to her and nothing short of inhumane to her. "She woke up on a bench and warned our leader about it. I promised to drag him back home to her."

"And look how that ended up for us," Sasuke told him bitterly. He ignored Glynda and focused on Naruto. "I didn't ask for you to come after us! I wanted to leave because I wanted to kill my brother by any means necessary! I was doing it for power!" Sasuke told him loudly. Naruto bristled and looked ready for a fight. His shoulder locked, his knuckles became white. His jaw was set. If he had a kunai in his hand he might have stabbed Sasuke right there. Same could be said for Sasuke. He was angry. His Sharingan flared to life and his hands shook with rage. "You never understood anything about me! You were born alone and will probably die alone!" Sasuke looked at the clock and marched off. "I'm going to class," he told him. He stopped at the elevator. "Naruto, I want you to know that I'm not sorry you're here. If anything, I'm happy that you're here. You're my friend!" And with that declaration, he left, leaving behind a stunned Naruto that seethed with rage.

"You fucking bastard!" Naruto marched for the elevator.

"Naruto," Ozpin called out quietly. Naruto turned sharply, his face twisted into a look of rage. Ozpin gave him a warming smile. Naruto was not pleased. "I want you to sit down or stand. I don't care which. But I want to talk to you about this and your future here at Beacon. So please… try to listen to what I have to say. I will give you time to adjust, to think, to plan on what you want to do with your life while you're here. I want to give you all available options that I can come with for you to better your life. Even if you don't join my Academy, I want you to at least understand that I can provide you with options to learn and live and work for us. So please… just calm down."

Naruto snorted at him and crossed his arms. He was going to break something soon. Or failing that, he was going to find Sasuke and break every bone in his body. How dare he say he couldn't achieve that!

"You have expressed your desire to not join my school, to which I am both saddened and happy. Most people would want to join no matter what. They seek power and knowledge, believing it will free them of their earthly shackles and allow them to rise higher than the rest. There are those here that have come to prove a point to family and friends. Those that have joined to right wrongs and see change in the world. And then there are those that are here because they have no other way of living life without a battle to fight on. Sasuke is one such person. He wants to change his life, and while I am reluctant to admit he has made great stride in his attempts, he has fallen more times than I dare to admit to him."

Ozpin paused and waited for Naruto to say something. He looked broken. Ozpin could see that he was at an impasse. What road would he take and how much pain would he endure before his choice was made?

"If you do not wish to join, I will not force you. But I ask that you please consider another option I would have available for you. One that we both get a mutual use out of." Naruto glanced his way with darkened eyes. Glynda shivered under his killing gaze. Qrow could give a good killing gaze when angered enough, but this was different. This was more than just a desire to maim and kill. It was something else. She wasn't able to put her finger on it. Ozpin seemed to have an understanding and continued. "You know nothing of our world. Your knowledge is limited to our enemy and the use of my school. There are people here that seek jobs for various uses. Some have taken jobs as assistants, private combat tutors to those with skills similar to their own, and security detail." Naruto's jaw clenched. "In exchange for your services as any of these, I will give you lessons about our world for the duration of your stay. Should we find a way to send you home tomorrow, you will have at least some knowledge of our world. But I do wish that the longer you stay, the more you would learn about our world. We've had months to try and figure out how to send you home with no luck so far. So please… for your sake, consider learning about our world. It will help you in the long run."

Naruto blinked slowly and his aura of destruction spiked. Ozpin could feel his killing intent clear as day. He wasn't happy about learning. Or perhaps he was just angry about not being able to go home now? Ozpin had an inkling that he was mad because he didn't know what to do. Cut off from his people, his friends, and probably even someone of great importance to him, Naruto would act wild. Perhaps, what was wrong with him wasn't that he was suddenly free from the shackles of his world, but that in his freedom he was at a loss for what to do. Ozpin could think of no crueler fate than someone that had lost their purpose. Ripped from the world they knew and loved and thrust into another without even the slightest bit of acceptance would drive anyone a little mad.

"I'm not having anything to do with your school," he said defiantly. Naruto looked at Glynda and dared to say something. He remembered her well. She saw his power. Naruto marched out of the room.

Ozpin smiled. Glynda wasn't happy. "You're just going to let him go like that?"

Ozpin took a sip of his coffee and looked deep in thought. Glynda checked her Scroll. Naruto was head out of the school and going to the forest. He had his weapons, his battle clothes on, and a pack slung over his shoulder. He wasn't slowing down either. "Give him some time," he told her softly. Ozpin checked his master Scroll and narrowed his eyes as he caught sight of Sasuke avoiding class in favor of going to his room to vent. The doorframe had a crack in it from how hard he had slammed it and the cameras in the hallways could pick up the sound of his voice coming through the door. He was berating himself for his words towards his friend. "Perhaps it would be best to have the other students stay away from both of them."

Glynda pushed her glasses up and looked worried for a moment.

"As much as I want them to resolve this peacefully, I feel that this will not end until they have settled their differences their own way." He grabbed his cane and marched towards the door. His shoes clicked as he swung his cane out and let his power settle. If they fought… if the worst came to pass… he would get involved. But only if the worst was to truly happen. If they fought like they did the day they arrived he feared for his students. Sasuke held back a large amount of his power and skill. His speed was beyond human, even for Ruby. His strength was superior to Yang's. His eyes were sharper than Blake's. His combat prowess greater than even Pyrrha's. If he truly fought with all his might, Ozpin had no illusion that Sasuke could beat every first year student at the same time. So if Sasuke fought Naruto, someone who was on equal footing with him, the outcome would be disastrous. "Make sure that if they fight, no student sees it. Though I doubt we'll be able to hide it, I would like them to keep the friends they have."

"You're asking a lot here, Ozpin."

"I know." He sounded sad. Glynda shut her eyes and could only obey.

(-)

Classes ended and the teams returned to their dorms.

For team JSPR, upon returning to her teams' dorm, they were greeted with the sight of a destroyed bed and scattered papers. Sasuke's desk was broken and his chair was scattered among the room. In the corner of the room sat the former Uchiha, his head down and his knuckles bloodied and bruised. He didn't acknowledge their presence. Emert looked around and shook his head. He put his bookies on his bed while Jasper threw his at his desk. They slid off and hit the ground with a thud. Persia kept her books close to her chest as she looked at the scowling form of Sasuke.

"Let's talk," Jasper demanded quietly. Sasuke grunted. Jasper walked over to his books on put them on his desk. Emert was busy trying to clean up the mess Sasuke had made in his fit of rage. Sad as it was, they all knew this was going to happen. It was why they had chosen to avoid Sasuke and Naruto during their trip to town to get him gear. With Sasuke's story about his friend, it was clear to them that they had still had things to work out. "So what's wrong?"

"I don't wanna talk about."

Jasper looked at their door. There was a burn mark of some kind. Sasuke had either blasted it with his fire abilities or tried to break it down with his lightning hand ability. In either case, the door proved to be far stronger than the seething rage of a former Uchiha. "That's fair and all, but I think we deserve to know why you felt the need to destroy your bed, your desk, and your chair." He paused and looked back at the door. Poor thing… "And the door," he added shortly after taking his eyes away from it.

Sasuke said nothing, opting to remain quiet and stubborn. Persia hissed at him and hauled him to his feet. He avoided her piercing gaze. "Look, Sasuke, you're our leader! Act like one! We want to know what's going on!"

Emert put a hand on her shoulder and motioned for her to leave. She looked furious enough to punch him. "Jasper, take Emert and go outside. I got this one." Jasper nodded and took Persia away. The last thing he heard before the door shut was him knocking on team JNPR's door and Nora greeting them loudly. "Look," he began, pulling at his shirt and removing it, "I know it's hard for you to move on like this. I think it was clear to us when you should us Naruto in the hospital that you were having a hard time with all of this. You're best friend was in a hospital bed because of you. You hate yourself for what you did. I get that. I hate myself for things I've done as well. That's what life is all about."

Rolling his one eye, Sasuke removed his eye patch and rubbed the scar where Naruto had clawed at him to remove it. "I don't wanna talk about it."

"Then don't talk about it. Let me talk." Sasuke looked at him funny. Emert threw on a plain white shirt as he moved to his desk. He pulled out his sketchpad and flipped to the back of it. He pulled out a photo and handed it to Sasuke. "Not all of us are saints, you know that right? No one is perfect. We all make mistakes. That's what makes us human… or Faunus. I had a friend once. Long… long time ago. We were inseparable. We used to spend our nights outside and look at the stars and talk about going there. We wanted to see what the world was like and have fun while doing it. His name was Gray. He had great power. He was everything I wasn't. His family was weak and he was powerful. My family was strong, I was weak. We became friends when he saved me from a Grimm attack. He smiled at me and we became friends after that. He taught me how to fight. I taught him how to have fun. To him, fighting was natural as breathing. He was born with great power, Sasuke."

Emert could see him in his minds' eye. The red hair, the piercing onyx colored eyes, the dark skin, the sword that slew a thousand Grimm with one swing. He could see him standing there in all how glory. A sad smile came over his face.

"One day we were playing outside. I was teaching him how to climb trees. We were little. I was always in them. I loved them to death. Still do. Give me a tree and I'll climb it. He never climbed anything short of a small hill. I took him to the top of a big red wood tree. The base was so big that not even my entire family combined could wrap their arms around it. If you got to the top of the tree you could see for miles. It was a breathtaking view. That was why my parents lived there because my father climbed it and took my mom there when they were younger. They wanted to live there. So they did."

"One day we went out and he was teaching me how to counter attack people by using their weight and strength against them. We were children. We didn't think it through for where we trained. He threw a punch at me. I grabbed it and did as he told me to. I threw him over my shoulder. He landed and we returned to training. But as the day turned to night we forgot about how dangerous my home was. Grimm were not strangers to my parts of the woods. One of them showed up. Tired, beaten, and lying on the ground… I was an easy target for it." Emert rubbed the metal gauntlet he wore. Sasuke had never once seen him take it off. "Gray jumped in front of it and fought it off when it attacked me. I did what I could, but I wasn't like him. I wasn't stronger."

There was a tingle in the back of Sasuke's mind as Emert stopped short of his elbow end let his hand rest there.

"Gray killed the Grimm that showed up and I was happy. We survived. Gray turned to me with a smile and called me a scared puppy. I laughed at him." Emert shook his head. Sasuke looked at the photo. It was a younger version of Emert and the boy he was describing. He looked almost identical to Emert, only with red hair and sporting a lion tail. "Another Grimm showed up and…" he sighed and Sasuke watched as a single tear slid down Emert's face, "it got him. It was a baby Deathstalker. It cut his entire right arm off. I don't remember what happened after that. I remember pain and seeing red. Gray said something to me. But I woke up some time later."

There was a metallic click. Sasuke watched as Emert removed his metal gauntlet. His arm came with it.

"When I woke up I learned that in my rage I not only killed the Grimm, but it took my arm as well. Gray's family was destroyed by it. Gray vowed it wouldn't get the better of him, but I knew it did. His family didn't have the money to get him the treatment that mine could get me." He put his gauntlet arm back on and flexed the fingers. "When I finished my treatment I went back to him. I showed him my new arm. He was happy for me. But I wasn't happy for him. I was sad. His life was stolen because of me. If I had been stronger. If I had been faster. If had simply paid attention and not stayed out and forced him to continue training with me, he'd be here at Beacon with me."

"I fail to see how that correlates to me."

Emert nodded and took the photo. "Gray became distant and one day he just disappeared. When I found out that he was gone I left from small job and went to find him. I found him." He looked at the ceiling and licked his teeth. "Do you know what he was doing?" Sasuke appeased him and shook his head. "He was killing himself." Sasuke blinked twice. "I stood at the base of the tree and he stood at the top of it with a rope around his neck. I asked him why he was doing this. He said because his life had no more value to it. I pleaded with him to stop and see what he still had. It was too late. He made up his mind and before I could stop him, he jumped. I watched my best friend commit suicide because he looked to me and didn't like that I got something out of it when he didn't. If I had given him more attention or given him more space, rather than show what I had to him, he wouldn't have killed himself."

Sasuke ran a finger over his eye patch in thought. "So you think that's what's going on between Naruto and me?"

"Yeah," he confessed quietly. "I know that our age difference doesn't really amount to much. A nine year old can have more life experience than a ninety year old can. I know that both of your lives have been struggles. You lost your family. He had no one. You had everyone in your village practically in the palm of your hand. He had no one but himself. And despite that, you turned out to be someone that didn't care about the world. He cared more about the world than you did. And right now, for you and him, you're living the life the other person had. You're pushing us away because you're afraid of returning to some dark path while he's already on it."

"What are you getting at?"

"Don't make the same mistake I did. Don't push him away and think that things will get better because they won't. I walked down that path before, Sasuke, and it cost me my best friend. I don't want you to live my life because no one should go through this. You've made us care about him because some of us know what it's like to be hated for something we don't have any control over. Some of us like him because you make him sound like the ideal version of a hero. You made him someone that we want to meet and be with while making yourself sound like the bad guy."

"I was the bad guy! I am still the bad guy!" Sasuke stood up and punched the door. It didn't give. It took his hit full on. Sasuke put his head against it. "I hated this world and all its people! I still do! There a days I just dream about killing everyone because they're happy and I'm not! And when I sleep at night I dream about my brother showing up and killing everyone around me to remind me how weak I am and that I still need power! No matter how much I smile, no matter how nice I try to act, it's never enough to make the pain go away. It will never be enough!" Sasuke bashed on the door again and gritted his teeth. "I wanted to have him wake up so that he could end my suffering and break this cycle of hatred for me. But when he woke up he was angry with me! He's still angry. I can't do anything to make him better. I can't make him see that what's right in front of him is a good thing! All he sees is something terrible and a betrayal to our village."

"Then maybe you're words aren't the right ones." Sasuke looked at him funny, a scowl on his face. Emert looked at his robotic arm with a sigh. "I told you about Gray because I wanted you to understand that life isn't pretty. I know you already know that, given how your brother killed your family. But there is another reason I told you. I told you this because I think what's wrong with him isn't your words, but his words. You're not listening to what he wants."

"What he wants is impossible and he doesn't accept that."

"Then you aren't listening to him." Sasuke glared at his teammate. "Think about it like this. He's here in a new city, surrounded by people he doesn't know, and the one person he does know is changing and trying to get him to do something he doesn't want to do."

"I'm trying to give him a better life!"

"And that's good and all, but he doesn't want that. He wants his old life."

"His old life was nothing but pain and hatred!" Sasuke stopped and slumped against the wall in understanding. _I'm no better than Itachi…_ He fell down and put his head against the wall. All of his actions up until now had been for Naruto to make his life better and try and seek redemption for a terrible set of wrongs he committed. And he was doing it all for him without his consent. _And my final words today to him were the wrong ones._ He knew what he meant by them and what he had meant to say. Naruto had heard them the way he had meant it. "I fucked up…" He confessed.

"That's a given."

"No! I mean… I really fucked up now." Emert looked mostly forgiving with the way he squinted and gave a small 'I told you so' smile. "You don't understand…" Sasuke formed his Sharingan and looked around. "I need to find him."

"I think right now you need to rest. And we need to clean up."

"No! I'm serious. I need to find him now before something bad happens."

"What could possible go wrong that it can't wait till tomorrow morning?"

Sasuke chewed his lower lip in thought. Would Naruto be brave enough to come and challenge him right now? No. He'd sit and stew over this. It was his nature. If something like this got in his way, he'd seek a way around it. Naruto was smart. But there were times like this that he'd sit and ponder on the next path to take. His next set of actions would be decided by how he chose to view the world around him. That was his style.

"We'll go find him in the morning. He's not going anywhere." Emert pulled his Scroll out and called Jasper and Persia back. "Don't tell them about my arm," he asked. Sasuke nodded. "Thanks..."

(-)

Blake wondered the forest with one goal in mind: Find Naruto. She had seen him head out and never return during class. She hadn't bothered asking Sasuke about it. Sasuke had been aloof ever since their trip to Vale. She thought it was because he didn't know how to act around his friend. Sadly, she now knew that wasn't the case. Naruto hated Sasuke for his past actions. Not their fighting or his helping hand towards making his life better, but his words towards them. Naruto, for what she could understand, didn't like that someone openly spoke about his life to another person.

Blake could understand why. Naruto had nothing. He didn't like that he had nothing, but was oddly content with it. He was happy with the nothing that he had. Sasuke forced a weapon on him. Made him use something he didn't like. She had noticed it right away as soon as he took the reverse blade sword. He grabbed it without thought and had looked so smug about it. Taking a weapon, any kind of weapon, took more than a few seconds. When she took up Gamble and Shroud, she had spent days looking at weapons. She tested each one to find the perfect one for her. She spent even longer on the name.

She was willing to stand by her words on his choice of weapon. It did speak volume about him. He wasn't a killer. He was someone that would spare all people if given the chance. She could see it in his eyes that he had never killed. She could see that in his eyes burned a deep hatred for Sasuke. But there was sadness, sorrow, loneliness, and even small amounts of fear behind his eyes. Those blue eyes that were so full of joy on the day she first saw him were also ones that had been filled with such burning hatred.

Blake knew what she was doing and she was sure that if Yang was here right now, she'd be making a terrible joke. Truthfully, she would be right. Curiosity did kill the cat. But she wasn't going to die tonight. If anything, she'd walk away with maybe a bruise or even a sore back.

"What are you doing out here?" Blake froze and looked up in a tree. Naruto was staring off into the distance, sitting on a branch with his pack hanging at his sword. His sword lay draped across his lap. It was unsheathed.

"I came to see if you were okay." Naruto blinked and glanced down at her. She looked a little indifferent to whatever problems he was having. With the grace of gymnast, she jumped up and landed on the branch he was on, standing only a few inches away from him. The branch barely moved with her added weight. "And I wanted to know more about you," she added. Naruto blinked slowly, his eyes never once faltering from unforgiving anger.

Naruto remained silent for a long time as she stared him down. After an eternity of waiting, Naruto looked away and said, "I'm not okay," as he sheathed the sword and put it behind his back. He propped it against the tree and put his back on it to keep it in place. He folded his legs so he was sitting in a meditative stance. "Why are you out here? Shouldn't you be in the dorms with your friends?"

Blake's bow twitched at his loud voice. He missed the twitch and stared at her eyes. Blake tilted her head and sat down just like he was. Her balance was rather remarkable and the fact that the branch didn't move to her movements was an added oddity as well. "I can only handle them in small doses," she lied effortlessly. Truthfully, she'd rather be there. But her growing curiosity brought her here. Naruto did not believe her words. "Why did you reject Ozpin's offer to join Beacon?"

Naruto's hand went to his headband. He touched it absentmindedly and suddenly understanding flashed in Blake's eyes. He was loyal to another cause. Perhaps it was a cult? A religious order? …A terrorist group? To join Beacon and become a Hunter would be a betrayal to him. Blake could understand that. She had to watch innocent people die by the hands of someone she cared about. Their final job together was the breaking point. She couldn't' stand it any longer. She wanted out. She got out. But the pain of leaving, the choice to find some place new to go to… that was hard for her. Fear had kept her stagnant for a while. Eventually she decided to take a chance and try to become a Huntress and change the world. There was no other way to do it than to become what she had feared as a member of the White Fang.

"Were they terrorists?" she asked quietly. Naruto's head jerked and he glared. "A cult? Religious order?"

"It's my villages' symbol. It means I'm a ninja, a warrior until death. Sasuke defied us by becoming a traitor. Because of him, we're here now." Naruto ran a finger over his headband and could feel the scratch marks from their fight still. He remembered slashing Sasuke's headband. One defiant act to show the world what he was. His silent seething way to show the world that their golden child, the last loyal Uchiha, was now a traitor. And now there was no one that would know it. No one would understand the meaning of his actions. By casting away his last name, his clan symbol, his headband, and joining Beacon, Sasuke won again over Naruto. He always won. Because he was so fucking damn perfect!

"I'm sorry for that." Naruto scoffed and looked away from her, unhappy and tired. "Sasuke spoke highly of you." Naruto glared at her. "He said you were a powerful person… but truth be told… I don't see a powerful person before me." Naruto blinked, his eyes still full of hate. "I see someone who's lost and unsure of the world around him. Someone who is afraid to take the first step towards a better life."

Naruto gave her a warning glare. She didn't care.

"So my question to you is this. Who are you really?"

The blond Jinchuuriki gritted his teeth and something snapped inside him. The image of the man from before holding the tri-kunai appeared again and his rage rolled over him in waves. He could hear the laughing of Kyuubi in the back of his mind. Naruto punched the tree and hissed a curse. "I'm a tool and a fool! I was someone that all the grownups looked at with fear or contempt. I couldn't make any friends. I just wanted them to accept me or at least not hate me! So I trained really hard to become as strong as I could! And then that idiot, my friend and teammate, Sasuke, decided to leave our village to become stronger to kill his older brother. We fought and I lost. He was going to kill me to increase the power he had… all for revenge! And our village leaders sent us after him to bring him back! I fought him and I lost… Like I always do against him. No matter what I did… no matter how hard I fought… he got the credit…" Naruto put his head against the tree and cried.

 _So that's why you speak about him so fondly,_ Blake realized. _People gave you credit for things that he did. In doing so, you created this problem and wasted too much time in trying to fix it._ Blake could see now why Sasuke would do all the things he did for him. Why he had cried and raged when he thought his friend had died at the hands of the Grimm. She got the story from Velvet. His heart monitor flat lined and Sasuke thought he was dead. All of his work… all of his words… everything he did from the moment they met was for Naruto and now his friend was so lost and confused that nothing but anger burned within him.

Naruto dried his tears with a scowl. "I'm not a traitor… I'm not abandoning my village because he did. I won't become a student here or a hunter. I'm going to stay a ninja. That's my way."

"Then stay that way." Naruto blinked. Blake saw it then. The side of Naruto that was his usual self. His dumb, joyful, happy self that could light up the world and made others want to follow him. "Just because Sasuke wants you to try and do this, doesn't mean you have to. You are your own person. No one can take that away from you. Just tell him. It's not that hard."

"The dumb bastard never listens to anyone. He hated me and Sakura right from the start. Some team we were…" Blake listened with rapt attention. Sasuke never spoke about his past life. He spoke only of Naruto and the one time he mentions how he put Naruto in the hospital. Naruto looked over his shoulder to Beacon and glared at something in the distance. Blake tried to see it but couldn't. "No matter where he goes people will love him. I will always be hated. I'm always in his shadow."

"You don't have to be. Stop chasing after him and be yourself."

Naruto turned to back to her and shook his head. "If people ever saw the real me, they'd hate me. If they knew what I was inside, they'd fear me. I don't want to be hated. I never had friends. I never knew my parents. All the other children for my age were happy. And then Sasuke lost his family and suddenly I thought I had someone that could understand me for who I was." Naruto stared at her for a moment and the image of Sakura filled his vision for the briefest of moments. _You were always chasing him. He never loved you… I loved you… I wanted to be with you and you always went to him because he was better than me._ "I'll never escape his shadow. I'm the monster. He's the golden child."

Blake's brows knitted together as she scowled at him. "Is that really how you choose to see yourself?"

"Yes," his voice was weak. Blake opened her mouth and shut it. His eyes were no longer filled with hate. He was lonely. "Everything that I've fought for has been taken from me. Back home I was hated and my purposes-in all the world, there was no one who needs me-I've become unnecessary."

Naruto shut his eyes and screamed inside his head. He wanted to break something or failing that, go beat up Sasuke. This was his fault. He was here now because of him and his desire for power. If he had simply stayed in the village none of this would have happened. If he had fought with the desire to kill instead of just hurt him he wouldn't be here. Because of Sasuke he was back in the dark and lonely place. The people who saved him from himself were now gone, nothing but a distant memory. His life was now without meaning.

"Leave me alone. I'm tired." Naruto turned away from her fully and started sleeping.

Blake nodded mutely and left. There would be a reckoning before the two were on good terms again.

(-)

Naruto awoke to the sound of gravel under foot and slowly he reached for his sword. In the blink of an eye there was a flash of steel and sparks. The tree Naruto had been in fell to the ground in two separate pieces. Sasuke stood with his sword drawn. Naruto put his sword on his shoulder and regarded him darkly. The sun was at Sasuke's back, but Naruto could see him clearly enough.

"We need to talk."

Naruto growled and knew just what _that_ really meant. "Fine. Let's _talk_."

(-)

Blake glanced at her Scroll as it went off. An image of Emert's face was plastered on it. Unhappily she answered the call, a spoonful of cereal in her mouth. "Hello?"

" _Where are you?"_

She gulped down her tasty morning breakfast. "Cafeteria... Why?"

" _Sasuke's missing, along with his weapons."_ Blake froze. Her blood ran cold as she got up. _"We're looking for him now. We're not assuming the worst, but hey, neither of them has been very happy with one another so I think we both know where he's at."_

"I'm on my way."

" _I'm calling Ozpin and Glynda. Not like they probably don't know already."_

Blake nodded to herself. Yeah, she could see them knowing about this. If Sasuke walked out armed to the teeth with weapons, there really wasn't too many places he could go that would require such lethal force short of robbing a bank or committing murder on your best friend. "Be careful."

The line went dead. Blake took a deep breath as she ran for her locker and grabbed her things. She dialed Coco and let them know as well. This was a hell of a way to start to the day.

(-)

There was a certain fear that always grew in the back of peoples' minds that made them dread passing around a corner each day. It was the threat of the unknown. But what was worse than that was the fear of not seeing something that was happening elsewhere. It gave you the illusion of something dark. It was worse than knowing. Knowing was half the battle. Not knowing was the fear. If tomorrow were to end; would you embrace it with open arms or continue on your normal day as if nothing bad was going to happen if you didn't know it was going to end? If you knew it was going to end; would you spend it with your family? Would you call up people you wronged and try to right it all in the hopes of ascending to Heaven, rather than falling to Hell?

This was the fear that drove everyone on Team JSPR, CVFY, and RWBY. Other teams were out there, searching. School was officially canceled. Ozpin called it off to find a stop Sasuke and Naruto from fighting. It left a lot of people questioning what was happening. Some had their doubts that the two were fighting. Others held no illusion that they weren't fighting.

For Ruby, she didn't know what to think. Naruto was a happy person, cheerful and fun. Sasuke was the same way, albeit a little odd at times and certainly rough around the edges. But their hearts were in the right place. It was why she held the illusion that they weren't fighting.

For Blake, she held no illusion that they were fighting. She knew deep down that this was a road they were going to travel. From the very moment she talked to him last night she knew that this was the inevitable outcome. How could she deny it? She saw Naruto's rage. She saw his loneliness and his fear and his sadness. He was alone and far away from home. The lonely boy that had cried to no one and saved them all because it was the right thing to do. Suffering endlessly at the happiness. It was a terrible and cruel fate for him. Blake had seen it coming the very moment Naruto chose his weapon. This was going to happen and she wasn't going to stop it. Not because she wanted to. But because in the end it was going to happen regardless. They would fight and one of them would listen or die. 

The three teams followed Blake as she ran through the forest. In a few weeks this place would be brimming with people as they set up shop for the festival. But for today it was a large field hiding two powerful ninja capable of devastating destruction capable of scarring the land and warping reality to their whim.

Blake and Velvet's ears twitched. They both came to a stop and listened intently for the noise again. The others watched in fear as they looked and waited. Velvet heard it first and started running. A moment later Blake heard it as well and started running. Double confirmed, the three teams gave chase. Emert ran up beside the two girls and stopped them. They heard it as well. The sound of metal slicing through air. He yanked them back and rolled out of the way. A tri-kunai lodged itself in a tree scant inches away from where Velvet's head had been. She looked to the weapon that was buried near to the hilt before looking back at where it came from.

Weapons brandished, they didn't have to wait long before a body flew through the air and hit the tree. Sasuke appeared from the speeding blur with a scowl on his face. His sword out, he leapt forward. Naruto met him halfway and drove him back through the tree and sent him into the ground. Sasuke cursed and took the butt of his sword and bashed it against Naruto's temple. The blond staggered back holding the side of his head. Sasuke took advantage of his loss of focus to attack. Naruto got it back quicker than expected, but it didn't matter. With a single swing Sasuke clove through flesh as he grazed Naruto's chest. Blood spurted into the air and rained down droplets on Sasuke's face. Naruto wasn't detoured and slashed at his form. His sword swing was blocked by the former Uchiha.

Neither of them was aware of the others that had found them. Cut up and bloodied, their sight was horrifying to some. To those had expected them to be fighting, it was a sight that they had expected. To those that hadn't expected them to be fighting, it was a scene straight out of a slasher movie where the hero fought against the main villain.

Naruto jumped forward.

Sasuke thrust his sword forward.

Their blades pierced it flesh and suddenly they were both gone in a puff of smoke. Sasuke left a log in place. Naruto simply vanished.

Ruby covered her mouth in fear. "They're… they're really fighting each other."

Weiss put a hand on her shoulder. She, too, was stunned by the sight. Emert took point beside Velvet as she wept for them. Blake motioned into the shadows of the trees. "They're that way," she told them. Emert nodded and looked back to the others. Blake did as well. Yang looked angry and was probably going to get involved. Jasper and Coco looked slightly indifferent, as if accepting and denying this outcome. Fox and Yatsuhashi looked unsure of what do. Persia was the only one to be committed to a decision on the matter. "We need to tell the Headmaster and Professor Glynda that we found them."

"They already know," Emert told her. He tapped his nose when she gave him a funny look. He looked back at the forest and wrinkled his nose for a moment. "Naruto's lost a lot of blood and yet he's still on his feet. This place is covered mostly in his blood. He really does get up from everything."

Velvet ran ahead. The others followed. Ruby dialed Ozpin's number and informed him that they were found.

(-)

 _I don't want this life!_

 _Then what do you want?!_

Sasuke punched Naruto in the head and felt Naruto's fist drive itself into his gut. Naruto leaned back from the force of Sasuke's blow. Sasuke doubled over. They both righted themselves and punched the other again, this time knocking each other backwards. Sasuke brought his sword to bear. Naruto was slow and grabbed his off the ground. In a single fluid motion Sasuke closed the distance and cut him across his back. Naruto screamed and turned, slashing as well. Sasuke avoided it with the greatest of his ease, his Sharingan eye spinning wildly as he predicted each move before it was even made.

Furious, Naruto summoned clones. Each clone wielded the reverse blade sword. Sasuke brought his sword up as he scanned each of the clones. With speed greater than what Sasuke could follow, they charged him. Sasuke twisted and blocked to the few that were to his left but could do nothing to the few on his right side. Sasuke blocked one and felt the cold caress of another blade against his the side of his head to his blind spot. He could do nothing against them as they forced through way through his guard. Grudgingly he backed off and fired a few fireballs at them. The clones were destroyed in a blaze of glory by his attack.

Sasuke narrowed his eye and grunted as Naruto appeared from his blindside and got him with a fist.

 _I want to go home!_

Sasuke grunted and kicked him in his the back of the leg.

 _This is our home now!_

Naruto jerked upright and caught Sasuke with a powerful fist to the chin to send him flipping backwards. Sword in hand, Naruto dashed up to him. Sasuke righted himself and slashed at the right moment to stop Naruto from taking his head. He'd already proven that even with the reverse blade sword he was strong enough to cut through a tree with the greatest of ease. Simple flesh and bone would do nothing against his might with the sword. Shame he didn't know how to wield. But that was a blessing here and not one Sasuke was going to look at with annoyance.

They pushed off and landed a good distance apart. Naruto was one Sasuke before the raven haired youth could so much as get a good defense up. Naruto bashed his sword against Sasuke's and sent him skipping along the ground like a thrown rock. Sasuke grunted as he came to a stop and got to his feet. Naruto was on him in a flash, hitting him hard with a backhand that left him reeling. Flipping backwards to gain some distance, Sasuke threw the last of his shuriken to keep him back. Naruto took one to the leg. He wasn't fazed by it. He ripped it out and tossed it over his shoulder and healed instantly as his red chakra flared around him like a living flame.

Coming to a stop, Sasuke took a deep breath and gathered his resolve to not use the Curse Seal. This wasn't a fight where he was trying to kill Naruto. Though he felt Naruto had a desire to end him right now.

Naruto growled and flashed towards him. Sasuke parried the swung and twisted to follow him. Naruto jumped to the right. Sasuke cursed as he lost sight of him for a split second. He found him quickly but felt a kick to the back hit him. The Naruto in front of him ran at him with the sword poised behind him with a powerful two-handed strike. Grunting, he raised his sword and blocked it. He dropped to one knee and put his hand on the back of his blade to keep it from falling on him. Naruto pulled back for another swing and Sasuke felt his right side get hammered by another kick.

He skipped along the ground and rolled to a stop a good distance away. He got up and spat blood. There were two Narutos now. Sasuke cursed his luck. Having one eye was not helping him here. Naruto was smart and using his blind spot against him. Smart bastard. If the situation wasn't what it was he'd commend him for being that smart. Shame only Pyrrha and Jasper used it against him. No one else was really that smart.

The sound of gravel under foot caught Sasuke's attention. He looked to where it came, sword up in preparation for an attack. He saw his friends and his face grew grim. They were horrified by his appearance.

Naruto charged him and tagged him in the back of the head with a knee. Something reached out from across their blows to breathe life into Sasuke. He disappeared in a puff of smoke and a log fell. Naruto twisted in the air to find him. As the log fell to the ground it exploded and Sasuke appeared from the smoke. He thrust his sword forward and got Naruto through the back. He cried in shock and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The real Naruto charged him. Sasuke growled and threw his sword at him. Naruto batted it away. Sasuke flipped through some seals and his hand was suddenly covered in lightning.

Naruto didn't stop. A clone appeared at his side and helped him form the Rasengan.

Sasuke shook his head. He had hoped Naruto would stop at the sight of his Chidori. Rational thinking was out the window.

They met and struck each other's attack. A high wind kicked up and threw everything and everyone away. When their attacks died out they were blown away by the force of their collective energies. Sasuke landed beside his friends. Naruto landed against a tree. Gasping for air, Sasuke slowly got to his feet and glared at his friend. Naruto showed no signs of fatigue. No doubt that was curtsey of the Kyuubi. But their attacks gave him an understanding of what was going on in Naruto's head. He was angry and he was lost. Somehow, he was in a dark and lonely place.

Sasuke had backed Naruto into a corner and he was doing what any sane person would do in a situation like that: Fight.

Weaponless, Sasuke assumed a battle stance.

"Stop fighting!" Ruby pleaded as she jumped in front of Sasuke. Naruto's red eyes hardened on her. Sasuke looked from Naruto to her and then back to his friend as his fiery aura began to slowly form into the one-tailed state. "Please! Stop fighting! Both of you!" Ruby looked to Naruto with tears in her eyes.

"Ruby," Blake said softly with hardened eyes, "this is how it has to be." She reached out and slowly pulled their leader back to them. Ruby started crying.

Closing his eye, Sasuke sighed. He had hoped to avoid this. They didn't need to see this side of him. They didn't need to see Naruto like this.

Naruto dashed forward. Sasuke's eye snapped open. Naruto swung his sword. In a flash faster than the eye could follow, Sasuke caught Naruto's sword with both hands. Stunned, Naruto froze in place as his mind raced with a thought on what next to do. Sasuke took advantage and removed the sword from the equation and kicked him away.

 _Let me in!_

Naruto rolled along the ground but sprang to his feet and dashed forward with two tri-kunai at the ready. Sasuke sighed as he had hoped Naruto was out of them. Naruto lunged forward to stab him. Sasuke ducked and twisted out of his reach and sprang back up to kick them from his hand. Naruto lost one and stabbed Sasuke in foot with the other. The former Uchiha didn't make a sound as he forced his foot down to rip it from his grip. Naruto cursed and ran for his sword. Sasuke removed the weapon and tossed the kunai at Naruto. It tagged him in the back. Naruto hit the ground and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Shit!" Sasuke whipped around just in time to avoid a swing from Naruto's sword that would have either removed his head or crushed his throat. Naruto spun around with his sword and lunged at Sasuke. The former Uchiha sprang to his feet with his hands flipping through the last of the seals for another Chidori. Naruto couldn't avoid it. Sasuke reached out and grabbed his sword arm with his free hand. With the other he plunged it deep into Naruto's shoulder and bashed his head against his. _Let me in you bastard!_ No reply. _Let me in! I'm here for you! I'll listen! What do you want?!_

Naruto pulled his head back and kicked Sasuke away, removing his arm. Naruto slumped forward and nearly dropped his sword as the gaping hole in his body began to slowly heal over time. Before long the hole had closed and his wound was gone. Truly, a mystical and remarkable thing that was sure to not be spoken about for days to come. Rather, they would all focus on the one thing that they took from this: They were both nuts and clearly trying to kill each other.

Sasuke held his arm and stared at Naruto as he stood up straight. His left arm was soaked in blood, but the wound had already closed. Sasuke shook his head, tired of fighting him. Naruto couldn't see that or wasn't willing to believe it.

With a loud roar Naruto lunged forward. Sasuke growled at him and jumped over him as he swung wildly at him. He ran forward and got his sword. Naruto was on him in a flash. They crossed swords. Sasuke took a deep breath and shoved him back. He gathered his chakra and swung upwards. He knocked Naruto's sword back and slashed him deep across the face and caught his eye. Naruto screamed and backed up holding his damaged eye. Sasuke ran forward with the opening provided. Something in the back of his mind took control and for a split second again he thrust his sword forward for a life ending stab.

Naruto's blood soaked hand left his eye and reached out. Sasuke's sword pierced his hand and the Uzumaki forced the blade away from his face. He made a fist on the end of the blade and ripped it down, removing it from Sasuke's grip. With a might roar he punched him hard in the side of the head.

 _I want to go home with you!_

Sasuke felt all of his anger fade and let the blow take its course. His body jerked violently as he bounced along the ground and hit a tree. Naruto screamed and ripped the sword out of his hand. With both swords in hand he glared at Sasuke and waited for him to get on his feet. The whispers of Kyuubi were delicious and tempting. The promise of power and revenge. The end to his suffering was the final piece of sweet succulence promised by the demonic fox. Sasuke got up and put his back against the three. He smiled at Naruto. Naruto raged and threw the sword with all his might.

Sasuke never stopped smiling. The sword struck and Naruto dropped his sword. Yang screamed in a mindless rage as she got ready to charge the blond. A calming hand on her shoulder pulled her from her murderous state. Blake had a look of understanding but pointed to Emert as he remained silent and still like a silent guardian.

Naruto dropped to his knees as his anger left and cried.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke said solemnly.

Naruto threw his last tri-kunai at him without looking. Sasuke didn't have the strength to avoid it, not that he couldn't; he just didn't have the strength to do it. It dug in deep to his right shoulder and he grimaced as he walked towards him. His sword had missed his head. Naruto was never going to kill him. He was angry and lost. There were no more words that needed to be said. He walked over to his friend and knelt down to him. Naruto looked up threw bloodied eyes. His damaged eye was solid red. No doubt that was the Kyuubi trying its best to heal its host. The blue eye was now red, but his other eye was blue. A side effect, perhaps?

Slowly, Sasuke put one finger on Naruto's forehead and smiled. _I'm sorry that I didn't listen to you._

Naruto's eyes lowered to the ground. _I don't want to do this anymore._

Sasuke nodded mutely. _I know you don't. I was so caught up in trying to make things better for you that I never took what you wanted into consideration. I'm sorry. I was just trying to do right by you like how you tried to do right by me._

Naruto ran his hand across his face to clear some of the blood. _I don't wanna join Beacon as a student._

 _Then don't. Become something more. I know Ozpin will have other options for you. Don't be a student. Remain as a ninja. That's what you want. Let your allegiance to Konoha stand and make that your crest._ Naruto stared at him. _I'll help you. I promise. I'll be there for you. Just don't shut me out. I did that to you so long ago and that was wrong of me. I don't wanna lose my source of strength for making me a better person. For once in my life you have someone else looking up to you. Don't let me down._ Sasuke smiled weakly. His vision began to go fuzzy. His finger slid from Naruto's forehead. Naruto caught him before he fell."You are so stubborn…" Sasuke told him weakly.

Sasuke sighed and looked to the others. Naruto did as well. There were mixtures of confusion, happiness, and fear in their eyes. Naruto looked away. Sasuke grunted as he got to his feet. He held his major wound as he moved to his sword. With a slow and deliberate ease he sheathed it. Naruto did the same and slowly looked around to his kunai and the damage they had done. His eyes were downcast. The gentle touch of another drew his attention. Velvet was at his side holding his arm and crying. She buried her face in his chest and held him tightly. Sasuke smiled and put his back against the tree.

"Were you two _trying_ to kill each other?" Weiss demanded, glaring at Sasuke as she marched right up to him. The former Uchiha chuckled. "I'm serious! Look at this place! Look at you! You're covered in blood and can hardly stand!"

"Leave it alone, Weiss." Blake turned her back on them as she started walking. "This has nothing to do with us."

"This has _everything_ to do with us! We were sent out here to find them! They ruined our classes because of their desire to settle things through fighting! What has there ever achieved in the past?! Nothing!" Weiss screamed at Blake's retreating form. Ruby moved up to Sasuke and looked him over with sad eyes. He smiled at her. Weiss turned and glared at Sasuke and then to Naruto. "What do you have to say for yourself? You nearly killed him!"

"He was never going to kill me," Sasuke confessed. Weiss looked unconvinced. He shrugged as Ruby picked up the kunai and walked over to Naruto with it. Sasuke studied her closely. She looked to the blond for a moment before handing it back to him. Slowly, he took it and thanked her. "Naruto is too gentle to kill anyone. That's who how he is. That's how he always is. This was just because… I wasn't listening to him. I was doing the wrong things for what I thought was the right reasons. Naruto, don't join Beacon if you don't want to. I don't care if you shut me out. Hate me if you want for dragging you here. But please don't shut them out. Don't shut out the world." Sasuke took a deep breath and started the long march back to Beacon. Coco remained behind with Yang and Velvet. The others followed Sasuke.

Naruto created a few clones and had them pick up the scattered weapons. Naruto sat in silence for several minutes before getting up and walking to Beacon as well. They followed after him in silence.

(-)

Ozpin stared intently at Naruto as he sat in the chair in silence. For hours he had sat there thinking in silence. Ozpin could see the gears in his head turning slowly. He was thinking, planning, trying to understand something his mind couldn't fully grasp until finally something did click.

Seeing his chance, Ozpin leaned back, his hands nearly folded in his lap. "What do you want to do, Naruto? I know you desire a place to stay. I know you know nothing of Remnant. And I know that you desire to stay close to the one person you feel a connection to. So tell me: What do you want to do?"

Naruto's eyes were tired and now forever mismatched. One eye was sold red, a side effect from Kyuubi healing his damaged eye, and the other his normal blue. Ozpin wondered if Naruto would see it as something more. Like a man with half dead eyes that saw the past in one eye and the future in the other. "I want to join as a member of the security force or as an assistant."

Ozpin put his hands together. "I know this is difficult for you." 

"No… Not anymore it's not." Naruto reached up and untied his headband. He put it on the desk and pulled out a kunai. Ozpin watched closely as Naruto stabbed it and put a line through his village marking. His final act of acceptance was this. The meaning was lost on Ozpin, but for Sasuke, it would mean something more. He put the weapon away and tied the headband around his head. "I'm not joining Beacon, but I will fight for it. Just promise me you won't try to force me to do things I don't wanna do."

"I can't fully promise that. Promises are so easily broken. But I will make a deal with you. If you tell me you truly don't want to do something, I won't make you do it. But you must give me a good reason not to. Is that fair?" Naruto nodded quietly. Ozpin sat down and called up a teacher. Nearly a minute later a teacher with wild hair zipped into the room. "Naruto, this is Professor…"

"Doctor!"

"…Oobleck." Ozpin gave a sheepish smile. "You will be his assistant for your days while you're here. During his class I want you to take notes, watch the students, and learn as much as you can about our world. I can think of no one better for you to assist than him." Naruto nodded slowly. The two looked at each other for a moment before the good Doctor cracked a smile. "I wish you both the best of luck in your classes later today."

"Right," Naruto put his hands in his pockets and walked for the elevator. Oobleck zipped right to it and tilted his head at the blond. Naruto blinked and suddenly the image of Iruka sprang to the front of his mind. _I'm coming home one day. I promise. I promise. I promise. I… I will come back home. I promise._

A/N

So clearly I don't need to state how this end. Naruto might be a bit OCish here but that's because I'm looking at this whole thing from a different and probably a more realistic stand point. Naruto has been ripped from his world to this world by his fight with Sasuke. He doesn't like it here because it's not his home. He understands that what he's doing is selfish, but at the same time, he's sort of got a good amount of a reason to act this way. He doesn't want to be here because it's not his life and Sasuke has, for a while, sort of tried to push him into it. So naturally Naruto doesn't want to do it because in his head this is betrayal to Konoha. He can't see it any other way and Sasuke isn't listening to him. Mind you, Naruto has clearly not really spoken up about it, but to Naruto, Sasuke doesn't understand him.

I suppose the best and probably only real way to understand this from a safe point without probably crossing too many boundaries would be when you had to move from one place to another as a child. Most kids, I included in this, fought against it. In one case I had someone important in my life (I was nine so she was important and kids back then didn't have cellphones), and I was livid when I found out I was moving from Utah back to Texas. So I draw a bit of that into this because this is a bigger version of it where Naruto basically went to sleep and woke up in a different place all together.


	13. The Greatest Power Of All Time!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

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Chapter 12

Life had returned to the odd form of normal the following day. After Naruto and Sasuke's fight, things had become rather fractured between the multiple teams that knew of or had spent time with Naruto and Sasuke. Ozpin went out of his way to make sure that the three teams that had seen their fight kept silent on the matter, but he knew he was asking a lot of them in a school filled with students that would break under pressure or piece things together to figure out what might have happened. It was like it was a hard thing to truly figure out if one looked close enough.

Sasuke returned to the school covered in deep cuts and bruises. Naruto returned practically unharmed, say for obvious cosmetic damage to his clothes, and covered in blood. Normally anyone would just consider it them fending off a Grimm attack that was close to the school. It wasn't that hard to assume such a thing either. Grimm attacks on the school, while rare, were a possibility when they were as close as they were to Forever Forest and Emerald Forest. Even the natural training grounds that they had access to could hide a few small Grimm.

But sadly, that wasn't really all the evidence one had if they looked hard enough.

For starters. Sasuke's wounds weren't long and jagged cut marks that would even resemble claw markings from creatures such as a Beowolf or even an Ursa. His wounds were small, deep, and precise. The openings on his wounds were clean and perfect; the tell-tell sign of a blade. His weapons were soaked in blood, something that Grimm had, yes, but would disappear just as quickly as you spilt it. His bloodied weapons remained as that; soaked in blood. Naruto's clothing had long puncture wounds and slash marks akin to a blade as well. The only odd piece of a damage done to his clothing was the giant hole at his shoulder where it would seem as though something large had gone through it.

Then there was the damage done to the landscape of their battlefield. Another piece of evidence that could be written off as something to do with Grimm, for sure, but there were things that could be pointed to their fight. There were large scorch marks with human outlines to them. True, if one wanted to assume that these markings could be the sign of a fight against Grimm, they need only ask the two involved and ask about those, to which both would reply that Naruto made clones and Sasuke shot fireballs at them as they held down Grimm. Simply enough, but then you'd ask why there were no Grimm outlines. The blood on the trees would be another sign of their fighting, but at the same time, could also be pointed towards a fight with Grimm. But the real kicker to it all wasn't the burn marks, the turned up landscape, the cut down trees, or even the pungent stench of seared human flesh.

It was the complete lack of Grimm prints. No matter what type of Grimm it was, it would have to move along the ground to get them.

A Nevermore would be seen from the sky, but it would still have to land to even hope to eat them. Even through their destructive abilities that moved the land to their whims, the train of a King Taijutsu would be seen. With no prints to back up the claim of a Grimm attack, and both coming back bloodied and beaten, all fingers would point to them for answers and the rumors would start.

For Sasuke, things had gone about as good as he had hoped. Ruby, Jasper, Emert, Persia, and Weiss all took his side. Having either not known Naruto well enough to see his side of things, they took Sasuke's side in the belief that Naruto had started the fight. Ruby was willing to give Naruto the benefit of the doubt. He broke down after their fight and had cried. He was broken by their fight and the cold truth of whatever Sasuke had said to him after it all. Coco was siding with Sasuke, as well as her team. But they kept their distance and favored Naruto more, alongside Blake and Yang.

The damage wasn't fully done either. The school gave Naruto odd looks. There were whispers of his involvement and his sudden rise to teachers' assistant without even attending the school. His age proved he hadn't attended and with smarter students able to piece together what happened, it was clear that Naruto wasn't going to be making any fast friends either. But there was also his red eye that made things hard for him. The pupil was slitted, just like a fox. Naruto had awoken many nights and was left confused when he could see clear as day in a darkened room. He had opted to start covering it up, but thought better of it. It was his scar. He'd wear it proudly.

The only team to stay on both boys' side was team JNPR. Having only heard rumors and not seeing the fight really made it hard to believe that both had fought in a battle to the death against each other. Sasuke's injuries were really the only proof anyone had and Pyrrha was willing to side with both boys and say that they were simply training and had an accident. Nora was more than happy to believe this, given her own fighting style and the amount of punishment she could take as well. Ren and Jaune had their doubts.

So as lunch came around it wasn't that much of an oddity anymore to see Blake, Yang, and Velvet sitting Naruto off to the side eating while Sasuke sat with his team and the others. On occasions Pyrrha or Jaune would join Naruto, but that was usually when the others were either away or was focusing more on school work for lunch. Ruby had a nasty habit of letting things pile up, despite her desire to prove she was an excellent leader. Today just happened to be a day that everyone was caught up.

"So you're not joining the security detail?" Velvet asked between her nibbles on the soup she had got. Naruto nodded mutely as he slurped up some of the noodles from his ramen. "I can't believe that they'd want you to join. I thought you had to be a third year or fourth year to join."

"Ozpin said I could join if I wanted to." Naruto was neglecting to mention that Ozpin still wanted him as an assistant to Oobleck since Naruto didn't know anything about their world. Who better to stick him with than the man who might know everything about their world that was of complete significance? Naruto picked up the bowl and downed the broth. Blake's eyes and hungry expression were almost comical to look at as he finished off his second bowl of shrimp and fish flavored ramen. Yang found it hard not to laugh. Naruto's brow nearly knitted itself together as he thought back on the fight. "Where were they when I had my little moment with Sasuke?"

"Well," Yang started, putting her elbows on the table, "I would hardly call your moment 'little' given all the damage you did." Naruto's face fell. Blake elbowed her in the side. Yang ignored it and continued, counting off on her fingers with each thing she brought up. "They only patrol the school. The forest isn't part of the school, so they can't patrol that part. As for where they were; chances are they're around us right now. So I wouldn't be surprised if they're normal students that just get paid to do this. Besides, not all of them are supposed to be students. A lot of them are people that tried to get into Beacon through good grades or passing one of the combat schools, but failed to get in because they lacked something. So Ozpin hires them as security for the school."

"Well, regardless of your choice, I thinking joining them would be beneficial to you in the long run. Who knows, you might meet some people your age," Blake pointed out. Naruto rolled his eyes and started working on his third bowl of food. Blake's eyes lowered as her stomach growled and the desire to steal his food for the sweet taste of fish grew within her.

Naruto shrugged. Age wasn't really a standing factor for him. There were people back home that were still Genin when they were forty. So if someone was around Ruby's age in this group, then more to them. They just happened to not get the position because they either lacked something or had nowhere else to go. Sort of like how Naruto didn't have anywhere else to. But it did leave a lot of unanswered questions for him. If they were in charge of security; where were they went Jaune was shoved into a locker and propelled out of the school? Bullies were another thing, but Naruto knew that deep down they couldn't be there for every person that got bullied. It was a combat school after all. Shame Konoha didn't believe it that too much.

Naruto took another bite of his food and caught Blake's hungry gaze. He sighed and finished what he had before gently pushing it towards her. "You can have the rest," he said quietly.

Blake didn't argue and began eating.

"I've been curious about why only eat fish, Blake. At least now I know why." Blake glared with a long string of noodles in her mouth. Yang raised her hands in defeat, smiling like a goofball as she turned on Velvet. "So when do you think your first job will be?"

Velvet pushed her bowl forward, having finished it and whipped her mouth with a napkin before speaking. "We have a job in a few days," she explained, burping slightly. "We're clearing out Grimm in one of the sectors. Hopefully we won't be gone for too long. I mean, we are the team that's being put in charge of the dance for this year." Yang grinned. "We won't be taking advice from anyone other than Coco. She has a good grasp on decoration without going overboard. If someone like Fox was in charge, we might never get it done." There was a brief pause before she added, "And if you or Weiss were to get involved, we'd never get it done either."

"You're no fun and you don't know that. I make cool parties!" Velvet smiled and looked at the confused whisker faced blond for a moment. Yang turned her gaze on him as well. Naruto looked lost on the subject of choice. "There's a dance that happens towards the beginning of the second semester here. I used to hear stories from other students that came here about it. Said it was a magical time."

"Depends who's in charge," Velvet confessed. "Last year it wasn't that great, but it wasn't bad either. It was just sort of bland. The team they had in charge of it had no sense of direction with it. One person wanted to do one thing, another person wanted to do another, and before long they had what looked like a three way dance field. It wasn't bad… They stuck to their guns, but it was rather hard to figure out where everything was and which floor was set up for what, and even the music was hard to dance to because they had all three sides playing at the same time."

"Oh," Naruto sounded very unsure of the whole thing. Ninjas didn't dance. Of course, they didn't exactly have anything like that back home either. The close thing to that would be the bars that Jiraiya had taken Naruto to during their search for Tsunade.

"Have you ever been to one?" Yang asked.

Naruto remained looking thoughtful before shaking his head. "Sorry, but I can't say have. The closes thing to any dance area I've been to would be a strip club, and that was with my master." Yang and Velvet blinked at the very thought of such a thing. It was very wrong and very stupid to take a thirteen year old boy to a strip club. That was asking for problems. Blake, however, looked confused at the finer point to his statement. He had a master once. That was news that went over her partner and fellow Faunus' head. Naruto leaned back in the chair and smiled. "It's not like I hadn't ever been in one before that, though. I mean, I don't see the point in it."

"Woman gotta make money somehow," Yang confessed. Blake turned on her with a light glare. Velvet blushed at the thought of herself doing that for money. "But why would you go to one at all?"

"For research," he answered plainly.

"What kind?" Somehow, Yang doubted that his research wasn't exactly what most people would refer to it.

"I wanted to know how the female body looked and what guys like about it."

They sat stunned by his words. Blake was the first to recover. "Are you… gay?" Naruto visibly blanched at the very word. "So you're not?" Naruto crossed his arms and shook his head. "Okay..." Blake went back to eating; having said her part and letting her mind get filled with perverse thoughts on the subject.

"Then why go in for research at all?" Velvet asked curiously.

Naruto looked around for a moment. His eyes locked with Sasuke's. The former Uchiha seemed to have an ear in on their conversation and was giving him a dirty look. No one else seemed to notice it either. Naruto turned back to Velvet, a sly smile on his face. "You wanna see trick?" he asked harmlessly. Velvet nodded vigorously. He got up and left. The three girls followed with Blake trailing behind as she finished her bowl of food Naruto gave her. Once they were outside and safely away from prying eyes, Naruto smiled at them. "Sasuke would throw a fit if he saw me do this. But this is why…" He brought his hands together and in a puff of smoke, Naruto was gone and replaced with a teenage woman about Naruto's age with long blond hair pulled into two pigtails and a moderate sized chest. "This is why," _she_ said in a rich voice.

Blake's mind overloaded. Yang smiled from ear to ear. Velvet looked slightly mortified. It was Yang that came up with the real reason it was created. "You do that to seduce people," she said happily.

Naruto returned to normal, his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face. "Actually, I did it for attention when I was little. The real version is…" Naruto stopped and looked at the three girls in front of him. He felt like he was on good terms with all three of them. Blake was nice, insightful, and was sticking by him because of her own undisclosed reasons. Yang was a lot like himself and more than willing to accept the unknown because how she was. Velvet was… shy, probably lived a sheltered life back home, and was more than likely not used to tactics like what Naruto did on a daily basis for either fighting or getting information. Not that he really ever used this ability to get information. "…far more awesome and I would be drained if I did it at its full use."

Blake glanced over her shoulder. Naruto was looking through them. The other two didn't notice it. Sasuke was behind them with a confused and annoyed look on his face. Blake shot him a harsh look that told him to leave. He left without a word. She turned her attention back to Naruto as he finished going on a spill about something she missed.

"So that's your Semblance, right?" Yang asked, sounding hopeful. In a world of oddly powered up people, having someone with the ability to generate a red aura, get up from anything short of decapitation, and change his features when angry, having someone that could transform into a woman was downright funny to her. And it had pigtails too boot! That was a plus. "That is the funniest thing I've seen in a while."

"I can think of funnier things," Naruto confessed with a sly smile still on his face. "And that's not my Semblance." Naruto lied effortlessly and smiled at them.

Yang snapped her fingers, disappointed at the prospect of a funny Semblance like that. She could dream.

The bell rang and the three females sighed unhappily. "Time for class," Blake told Yang. Velvet had already started her trip to her next class. Naruto stayed behind and smiled. "What are you smiling for?"

"Nothing," he said quickly. He started walking towards Velvet. "I'll see you soon!" He called out before he caught up to the bunny girl. Velvet smiled as they shared a quiet walk towards her next class. Naruto knew where she was going. She'd already had one class with him today and she told him earlier that she had the same class again after lunch. Naruto wasn't the sharpest knife sometimes but he most certainly wasn't dumb.

"Do you like being Doctor Oobleck's assistant?" she asked cheekily. Naruto faked a smile. Really, he didn't know what to make Oobleck. The man was too hyper and to straight forward about everything. Naruto's only real purpose in the class was to go over their history and geography, both things he would admit to being terrible at back home. Velvet gave a light tap on the shoulder. Naruto faked being hurt. "Chin up," she told him as they rounded the corner to his class. A few students had already raced inside. The strolled in. "All you have to do is keep an eye on us. That's not too hard, right?"

"It's easier than you'd think," he confessed.

It was easy because Naruto cheated. Oobleck didn't have the basic understanding of what Naruto could do. Sasuke understood everything that he could do, but that was a given, and unless Sasuke had spilled the beans on everything Naruto could do; only a few people really knew a few of his abilities. With the exception of his Oiroke no Jutsu being known to Yang, Blake and Velvet, only their teams, along with team JSPR and JNPR, really knew that he could make clones and that he did get up from everything. But they didn't know that his abilities could work on the other abilities as well, meaning that as of right now Naruto had a dozen other clones all over the school doing whatever they wanted so long as they didn't interfere with school work.

Naruto gave a toothy grin to Yang and Blake as he passed them. Weiss glared at him as he went behind Oobleck's desk and sat down in a second chair. Not a moment later the good doctor showed up and the bell rang.

"If you would all open your books to page two hundred eleven, we can begin reading up on the first construction of the first great wall of Vale." Oobleck did a head count as the students pulled out books. Some were slow to respond, suffering from the tiredness of eating too much and needing a nap. Oobleck wouldn't blame them. They were being feed high calorie diets to sustain themselves through combat and studies. But even with all the calories they ingested it didn't leave much room for anything other than sleep if you ate too much. "Once you've gotten to the page I want you all to read quietly to yourself for the next thirty minutes. You are to read from pages two hundred eleven to two hundred thirty. We will be taking a quiz on this test and I expect you to know the answers."

Naruto cracked open his book and started reading more on the geography of the land. As someone who couldn't tell you where Suna was on a map of their world, Naruto was going to do all that he could to learn how to read a map for this place. It wasn't like it was hard. They had few settlements outside the walls of the major cities and capitals. There were places beyond the wall that did have some natural barriers that would protect them from harm, but those were few and far between. Most places had little protection from Grimm attacks. It was what made the city life that much better. Only the truly brave or truly dumb stayed outside the city walls. Most people were brave. Others saw them as dumb. It was really how you looked at it.

There were other reasons that Naruto wanted to learn this stuff. The history portion, a subject he wouldn't lie about hating, was something that did interest him here. For starters, most of the history he favored was on the terrorists group White Fang. Their history alone was interesting to him. Their culture was also something that interested him. They were a group of people that were completely comprised of Faunus members. Originally they were civil rights movements group, seeking justice and fair rights alongside their human counterparts. This was done to increase relations between the two races and unify them towards a common enemy.

But human nature had to rear its ugly head and smash those hopes and dreams.

What had started out as a small group seeking equal rights and justice was soon forced into a corner and started taking matters into their own hands by their _own_ methods. Stores that refused to serve Faunus were burned to the ground. Law enforcement groups that had wronged them were beaten. Supply trains that sent food and other resources to areas that wouldn't help Faunus were pillaged. Before long, their stand was not about seeking equal rights by talks, but rather by violence. Then the leader stepped down and their actions became worse. Protests turned dark. And suddenly overnight the White Fang had gone from being a peaceful group to a military group that struck terror into the hearts of many.

There wasn't any end to their regime in sight either. Things were getting darker as the days went by. With the Schnee Dust Company paying Faunus works half the salary of a normal worker, not allowing them to climb higher up the business food chain, it wasn't any wonder that a lot of Faunus left what they had behind to join a group that wanted to strike fear into the hearts of humans and work their way to the top by _their_ violent methods. Sad truth to all of it was that it was working in getting them their rights, but not the ones they desired. Fear kept the masses at bay, but that would hold for so long before the gate would break and the pent up rage would flood onto them. There would be no saving them if they continued down this path.

But sadly, that wasn't what Naruto was reading at the moment. Ozpin told him that very soon he'd start taking jobs and Naruto, per Sasuke's request, was studying the map of the world. So far he was happy to be able to point out the Four Great Kingdoms, small settlements, and all the failed settlements. The Grimm was not slacking with their path of bloodshed over the world. If anything, they were to be commended for their tenacity in doing so. Naruto already got a basic grasp of them, but his time with Oobleck had taught him one thing: Not all Grimm were mindless. Naruto could only think of them as being similar to Kyuubi. The ones that were stronger were older and wiser. So they knew how to fight humans and win. They were the apex predators of this world. For a normal soldier, one Ursa could take on four of them. A raw recruit could take on three Ursa. One in training, like the first year students of Beacon, could take on seven or more Ursa. But a truly powerful Hunter, one like Oobleck, could take on hundreds.

Naruto had no illusion that his power, while great, couldn't withstand as many Grimm as most people. But if he used Kyuubi's power, then nothing would stand in his way. That much was proven. A three-tailed aura was more than enough to rip large Grimm apart, but ancient Grimm was another story. Without fighting one, Naruto had no idea on where he stood. This was why he was focused on the city Mountain Glen. It was home to such terrible creatures of Grimm, but more than that, it housed an ancient one with power so fierce it made even hundred year old Grimm look like children. Only once had people encountered it before the city became abandoned. 

Could he actually kill something that powerful? Naruto hoped he could which was why he really wanted to-

His head jerked upwards and he scanned the room for the man on the third row that had been drawing rather than working. "That's a terrible drawing," Naruto mouthed off randomly. Oobleck gave him a funny look and quickly swept over each face for someone guilty of drawing. Naruto looked around the room and shook his head. _That was weird. I could have sworn that I saw…_ Naruto paused in his thinking and stood up. "Oobleck, I'll be right back." Naruto left before getting permission and was quickly outside. He scanned the hallways and followed the path that he remembered taking, yet hadn't _taken_? He found himself in Glynda's class. She stopped whatever lesson she was giving to look at him as he marched through the rows before stopping at a boy with a gray mullet. "You…" Naruto said randomly, pointing at him. "Why are you drawing in her class?" _Better question: Why do I know he was drawing in her class?_

"Mr. Uzumaki, I believe you're to be assisting Doctor Oobleck's class, not mine." But her gaze did sweep to the boy he had pointed out. "And what drawing is he talking about?"

Naruto smiled and left before things got weird. The last thing he heard was the class laughing as she rounded on him with a lecture on paying attention. Returning to Oobleck's class, Naruto smiled nervously. "Sorry," he said quickly enough, gaining the attention of a few others in the process, "My psychic powers were taking over," as he walked back to his post. He caught sight of Sasuke looking at him funny. Oobleck did as well, but whatever questions they were going to ask were put on hold. Naruto sat and pondered on how he could have known about the teenager that was drawing. Really, how did he know? That wasn't possible. He was nowhere near that class. And how did he even know how to get there? He hadn't gone to her class yet. In fact, he had actually tried to avoid her because she had something against him it seemed.

Naruto was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he missed the bell and wasn't pulled out of his thoughts until Oobleck tapped him on his shoulder, jarring him entirely from his stupor. "Sorry! I was testing myself!" He lied as he came too. Oobleck adjusted his glasses and Naruto gave him a disarming smile. "Sorry… I was wrapped up in my thoughts."

"I can see that. Tell me, Mr. Uzumaki, what was with that outburst earlier? There was no one drawing in my class. I could report you to Ozpin for that. So tell me right now what that was all about."

Naruto licked his lips as he tried to think of a way to explain. Oobleck was hardly one for patience it seemed. Naruto shut his eyes and leaned back in the chair. He opened them and looked at the ceiling. "One of my abilities is that I can make solid copies of myself," he said slowly. Oobleck tightened his jaw, unhappy so far with his answer. "I sent a few of them around the school to explore for me because I knew I'd be bored and I was going to talk to them when they came back so that I could get the basic layout of the place. But one of them…" Naruto paused and licked his lips. That couldn't really be it, right? Summoning a clone, Naruto said, "Go outside with him and say something to him please. Play a game or something and when it disappears, come back. I'm testing something."

Oobleck zipped out the door. The clone gave its master a funny look. Naruto shrugged and hoped for the best. There really wasn't anything else but to try and recreate the circumstances of it at this point.

The clone left and disappeared for several minutes with Oobleck. Oobleck came back and Naruto was shaking his head. "So what was the purpose in that?"

"You wear contacts to hide your eye color." Naruto looked pale. Oobleck looked a little confused. Naruto held his head and fell out of the chair. "And I just dispersed all of the clones and I know where everything is. How do I know this?"

Oobleck's glasses slide down his nose and a smile formed on his face. He sprang right to Naruto and held up him up. "Do you have any idea on amazing that ability is? The ability to not only create an army of yourself, but to also gain knowledge without losing human life is simple astonishing. Gaining such a massive amount of information would no doubt stress a normal human brain, which means that yours is not a normal human brain! Do you know what this means?!"

 _That I can peep on girls in their locker room and not feel guilty about it because I will send a clone to stare at their ass, disperse, and I can enjoy the sweet image of it in my mind forever without getting hit._ Naruto nodded vigorously. This was a power meant to be used and abused on the female side of all things. No women would be safe from him. "That I don't have read these books! I can make my clones do it!" Naruto made a bunch and sent them away to study. "How did I not know I had this ability with them? No wait I know why. The people who could use it never told me about it and it wasn't written in the manual for it." Naruto didn't care if Oobleck knew about how he learned this skill. He was already not normal.

"My dear boy, this ability could save lives and give us valuable information on our enemies! And yes! You can use it to study." He calmed down and looked thoughtful. "I must report to Ozpin immediately. Every teacher could get a copy of you to watch their class and be their assistant."

 _Not really sure I wanna do that, but hey, if I can help and get paid for it, I'll do it!_ "Sounds great!" Naruto feigned joy and walked out of the classroom as Oobleck dashed out as fast as he could.

"So what was that in class about?" Naruto turned excitedly to Sasuke and grabbed both of his arms. Normally he wouldn't act like this, but really, who else was he going to tell that would understand the total awesomeness of this skill or explain it to him a dumbed down version? Kakashi wasn't here to do it. Jiraiya wasn't here to laugh at him or tell him how stupid he was for just now figuring it out. And Iruka wasn't here to gasp over the practicality of what this whole thing meant. "Alright, Naruto! Let go!" Naruto released him and remained bouncing in place. "Seriously, what's with you?"

"I learned something cool!"

Annoyed, Sasuke rubbed the bridge of his nose with his banded one good arm. After returning to Beacon from their fight, Sasuke was bandaged up and told that he wasn't allowed to fight anymore. He was given painkillers, but those hardly did anything for him. Not like he needed them. As long as the two most powerful teenage blonds didn't grab him he'd fine until he went to sleep and rolled over on his arm that was stabbed.

"What's going on?" Ruby asked, worried that yet another fight was going to break out between them. Weiss, Yang, and Blake all showed up with Jaune and Pyrrha running up as well. Ren and Nora started heading to their dorm to get changed for dinner.

"I learned something cool!"

"Yes, Naruto, I know that." Sasuke sighed. Things were never straight with him, were they? "So what'd you learn?"

"My clones have a cool ability!" He summoned one and told Sasuke to leave with it. Ruby looked ready to follow, but Naruto's bouncing in place put her at ease. A moment later Sasuke came back shaking his head, unsure of what the point was. "I lost each round of rock paper scissors! But my clone asked you to use your Sharingan." he exclaimed happily with the exception of the last part.

"Yes, of course you would. You asked me to turn my Sharingan on." Sasuke froze. Wait. Naruto hadn't told him to do that. At least, not this Naruto. And how did he know that…? Sasuke's jaw might have hit the floor had he not had the decency to hide his own shock from his whisker faced friend. "So you can retain the memories of your destroyed clones." Naruto nodded vigorously. This was lost on the other people present. "So you basically have the ultimate study guide built into your head?" Sasuke was not gonna lie. He was rather annoyed by this. For once, Naruto outdid him with an advanced clone ability that would die in one hit, use his abilities, were free thinking, and could now retain memories from their shared lives. Yeah… he was a little pissed.

"Forgive me, but why is that a good thing?" Yang asked as she scratched her scalp.

Weiss regarded Naruto with a dark look as she stormed up to him, pocking him in the chest with one hand and listing off everything else the other. "So let me make sure I understand your abilities as we know them right now." Naruto stopped his hyperactive bouncing to pay attention. "You can generate a red aura that you can use to grab onto anything, tear it apart with either your hands or those specter hands. You heal from all _fatal_ injuries, no matter how grave! You can create copies of yourself that are free thinking and fully independent from you! You can create a blue orb in the palm of your hand that drills through everything it touches! And your clones can now feed you their memories when they die! Am I missing anything?"

 _Only a few other terrible things!_ Sasuke wanted to scream. Thank god she was listing off his abilities.

"Yep!"

"What are you?! Some kind of monster?! That's not even human!"

"I know and it's cool!" Naruto brought his hands together and made a dozen clones. "Go read the books in my dorm and die when you're done!" And he couldn't have said that any better. Still bouncing in place, Naruto turned back to the others. "How come I never knew this before? This would have saved me so much time back home. Think of how smart I'd be if I used this back in the village?"

Sasuke licked his teeth in thought before saying, "You just sent about a dozen copies of yourself to read books in your room by themselves. If I didn't know you as well as I did, I would let you find this out on your own, but I'm going to tell you that since they are free thinking, that means that they will get bored. They are basically _you_ because they are created from _you_ and that means that they all have the attention of a goldfish. Also, let's not forget that rather than destroy them when you have to go to the bathroom; you've left them to try and get to the bathroom as well, while fighting an army of yourself! This isn't going to work out in your favor."

"This is totally going to work out in my favor. How bad could this backlash be on me?"

Truer words were never said by him. Naruto could take a physical beating like no other. And Sasuke was not going to lie and say that Naruto might be able to take a mental beating as well. With all the free space he had in his head, there was no way a few clones reading some books were going to fry his brain. And even if they did, it wasn't like he'd stay down for long. If anything, he'd jump right back up and do it again now that he had a way to become smarter than any other student in the school. Why was this skill forbidden again?

"This is easily the coolest thing I've ever learned in my entire life. For once, I'm going to be smarter than you, Sasuke!" Naruto pointed and then fell to the ground with swirls in his eyes. Sasuke shook his head, but not ten seconds later Naruto was on his feet with wide eyes. "I know the whole layout of this school now." His face twisted into a frown. "And I need to go beat up someone. Does the name Cardin mean anything to you guys?" A collection of nods greeted him. "He's being mean to Velvet. I'll be right back." Naruto dashed away.

Sasuke sighed. "In all the years I've known him, this might actually be the greatest thing he's every achieved," he said plainly. "And I'm not going to lie about this. I hate him for it. That's a skill I want to learn now." Sasuke stuck his good arm in his pocket and started walking after Naruto's charka trail. It wasn't like it was hard to figure out where Cardin was going to be. And with Naruto basically lighting up the whole place with his chakra for his Sharingan eye to follow, tracking him down was going to be easy.

Weiss's left eye twitched and she growled before storming off. Ruby followed. The others went after Sasuke to watch Cardin either get beat up or have something else terribly done to him.

(-)

"Are you kidding me?" Yang exclaimed.

Before them was a sight that most people would find terrifying, yet somehow it was amusing. It was the thought of having such a terrible thing done to them that it made most peoples' blood run cold.

Before all of them was Cardin. But he was not the Cardin they all knew him as. No. The Cardin before them was a _woman_ with shoulder length hair, a heft bust, tiny frame, and long bunny ears. Just the whole concept of that image was funny for both irony and how his voice sounded as a girl. What was truly scary and horrifying about the whole thing, however, was that Naruto had his fingers right up _her_ butt.

"One thousand years of death!" Naruto screamed as he finished his enema on the bully. The female Cardin went running after that while Naruto fell on his back, rolling with laughter.

Perhaps it was because Yang had never truly thought of the idea of sticking anything up her butt to be pleasant that she thought the sight of a man with his fingers up another man- Or in this case woman's! - ass to be pleasant. She didn't live that sheltered of a life. She knew how the porn industry worked. She had friends that experimented. That didn't mean she did. And that was a terrifying thought all on its own. Who took pleasure in sticking anything up there? And even then, who took pleasure in sticking something up someone else's butt, let alone their own fingers?

The other bullies ran before they suffered a similar fate. Sasuke held a terrified Velvet in his arms as he shook his head at the sight of his laughing friend. If anything, Velvet had another reason to like Naruto after this. Not only did he protect her, he turned Cardin into her and then tortured him in the only method that wouldn't let a mark anyone was willing to show.

"That was the best thing ever! I needed that!" Naruto rolled over onto his side and pounded the ground.

"You stuck your fingers up her… I mean his butt!" Yang exclaimed.

Blake was still laughing alongside Pyrrha. Jaune was hiding behind said redhead, fearful that the excitable blond might do the same to him. "It's a ninja move!" Naruto said between his fits of laughter. "It's a secret technique."

"What's so secret about sticking your fingers up someone's butt?" Yang fired back.

Naruto stopped laughing and actually thought on that one. Why did Kakashi say it was a secret technique? It wasn't really all that much of a secret? Did it really have something to do with their village only? Could Suna ninjas do it as well?

Thankfully Sasuke stepped in before Naruto's brain was fully fried by the gears in his head as he thought on it. "It was something our teacher taught him that he used on him once. It's sort of a technique that's passed down from teacher to student." Sasuke couldn't think of anything better to say on the subject. Kakashi did it to Naruto. Naruto did it to Gaara, but with a kunai wrapped in an explosive seal. Yeah that about summoned up how that skilled worked. Did that mean Gaara was now going to do that attack as well? God he hoped not. That'd be more painful than a kunai with an explosive tag on it. "He's not going to use it on you guys either. So don't worry about it."

"But still! Why the butt?" Yang wasn't going to let that one go.

"Well where else are you going to do it on a guy? His bellybutton?"

"Okay you made your point."

"His ear?"

"Enough!"

Sasuke shrugged, having had his weekly say for the time being. Sighing, Sasuke looked at the door that Cardin had gone running out of him. Coco was marching towards them a joyful smile on her face. "You should probably think about going and turning Cardin back to normal."

"No fucking way am I doing that. He can suffer for the night!" Naruto stood up and crossed his arms.

"You just gave him boobs to play with," Blake told him quietly. Cardinal was a guy with female boobs. Big boobs at that. So he was going to do what every guy dreamed of doing with boobs: Play with them.

"It's just a simple illusion," Sasuke replied. Velvet came out from behind him and jumped down to Coco. She was explaining what happened. "It works by forcing our energy over another person and altering their image by force of will. We're basically casting an illusion on him that disguises him as something or even someone else. What he reaches for won't be there. But it does react to the world around it. So those long ears he now has will actually blow in the wind or fall back as he runs. He just can't control it." _And with as much Chakra as Naruto put on it, that's going to last a good bit if he doesn't release it._ "Just think of like this. If he doesn't show up to class tomorrow, you know why."

"Yeah," Yang snapped, "both reason." She shivered.

Blake looked her over and cracked a grin. "I thought your hair being damaged was the biggest fear you had?"

"Well it is until I saw Naruto stick his fingers up Cardin's butt!" She covered her butt with her hands when she saw him look her way. "Don't you dare think about touching my butt!"

"You saying that only makes me wanna touch it," he told her plainly. Naruto thankfully turned his attention to Sasuke and said, "You think I'll get in trouble for this?"

"It's a combat school! How can you possibly get in trouble for doing that? You didn't physically harm him. Mentally scar him, yeah, but not harm him."

"Well it should give Cardin a better understanding of both the female and faunus race," Pyrrha said happily. Naruto shrugged. Jaune still looked worried. "Well, we should all head to the cafeteria to eat dinner. Ren's making pancakes~!" she sang, much to the delight of Jaune. Ren's pancakes were the best.

"I'll have ramen, thank you ve-" And Naruto hit the ground with swirls in his eyes, stopping everyone cold as they looked to the passed out blond.

Sasuke walked up to him, picked his head by his hair and screamed, "Fire!" in his ear as loud as he possibly could. Naruto didn't react. Sasuke dropped him and sighed. "He's out. His clones must have died off or something. Any of you wanna carry him to his room? I can't?" Sasuke waved his bandaged arm around. Yang and Blake volunteered. With Naruto out like a light, Sasuke walked with the others towards dinner and time with friends.

(-)

Blake shoved Naruto's door open and stood in shock to the dozen clones he had in his room. Yang sighed and looked at the sea of blue and red eyes that glanced at her and then their leader. One of them stood up and marched over to them, taking him off her hands. With a simple toss they sent their fearless leader at his bed and let him hit hard without a care in the world.

"Am I never getting used to this," Yang whispered. Blake just smiled, suddenly realizing that there really was someone here at this school that made her feel normal. How many people could make copies of themselves or acted goofy at this school? None! "Is he going to be okay?"

"The boss will be fine. Though," it looked around at a few others books that didn't have readers anymore, "if we destroyed only five of us to do that to him, what's going to happen to him when all twenty of us go out?" Yang looked visibly worried. The clones chuckled. "Oh well! Not my problem. Thanks for bringing our boss to us, Yang." He shut the door and looked at the other clones. "All in favor of staying up and reading more to torture our maker raise their hand!" All hands shot up! "Few more hours it is!" They all cheered and went back to studying.

A/N

So aside from the obvious role Naruto's play and the aftermath of their fight, there was this chapter that I wanted to get to because Naruto's clones have always had this ability and there was one scene that came to mind that never made sense to me. Naruto had a bunch of clones reading books when he was out with Jiraiya at one point and he didn't notice he got their knowledge. I know that's like a million chapters before that was even revealed to be a "secret" ability of the Shadow Clone Jutsu, but it was something that Naruto did and it never made sense to me. Plus, all the other times he created clones and sent them out sort of makes it hard for me to also believe that they wouldn't pass their information along. Battles and whatnot aside, I really wanted to do something funny with it and immediately show consequences for it as well.


	14. A Moment of Peace and Reflection

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

This story is entirely fan-made and fictional. Any acts that you might find offensive, disguising, inhuman, wrong or just don't like, we are not liable for. You are reading this story of your own free will and not being forced, if you don't like something we are not forcing you to stay and read it. Please leave the page and re-frame from reading the chapter and or story. All Copyrighted Characters belong to their respect owners. We don't claim anything that is not our own creation and are merely using them for fan made material.

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Chapter 13

"How do you do this again?"

Sasuke gave his fellow teammate a hard glance and wondered if explaining it for a third time would finally stick in his head. Emert wasn't slow by any means, but his constant questioning of their abilities was slowly beginning to grate on him. Much like how Naruto's constant complaining would grate on him after a while. Really, the true question he should be asking was something completely different, but he wasn't going to state what the real question should be right now. Maybe later if he trusted them enough in the foreseeable future. Or if Naruto slipped up.

"It's a replication ability that splits the users' energy to make a fully functional replica of the user that has free range and free will. They are fully capable of doing the original's abilities as well. This in turn makes combat and intelligence gathering a must have for this skill." Sasuke wasn't sure if that was the true purpose behind the ability, but he was going to say it was. It wasn't like the person who created it did it for the soul purpose of being a peeping tom or anything.

"We get that," Jasper said with a bored tone. He gestured ahead to a shirtless Naruto as he fought off a bunch of other clones fighting him with a shirt on. It made it easier to figure out which one the real one was and who to cheer for in this little sparing event. "What I'm getting at is how he's doing all of it. Even then, wouldn't the memory intake give him multiple personality disorder or something? Even if they're alive for five minutes, that's five minutes they have of free thinking and free will. So that would create an irregularity in his mind, thus creating a split personality."

Sasuke scratched at his chin in thought. That could explain a few things about Naruto, but he doubted that a hundred copies of the whisker faced blond would truly amount to anything more than his usual dumb self. And even then, it wasn't like it was really damaging him, otherwise Kakashi would have told him to never use the jutsu again. But, there was the simple fact that Naruto had stupid hands and the concept of Ninjutsu was sort of lost on him. Taijutsu wasn't his strongest point either. If someone like Yang could outdo him in Taijutsu, that was saying something, considering that his female counterpart here was more or less just a brawler like him. Unless Sasuke looked at her all wrong, then in which case, he had more respect for her.

"I'm not sure creating an army of yourself is a good idea." Persia was stuck on the bad idea of said ability. "Wouldn't an army of you all think the same way? So when you wanna change up your ideas, you're talking about making sure the entire group understands what you switched your plan to. And even then; in normal circumstances, they wouldn't be able to find the original. So they'd have no real leadership to them."

"Those are fair points, but Naruto was never one for that kind of stuff," Sasuke reminded. Having seen his method of fighting now for over a week, it was clear that Naruto had two methods of fighting. Overpower you or overwhelm you. If there was a third option to his method of fighting it was that he was just unpredictable, but that was what fighting was about. The moment you became predictable you lost. That was why Sasuke came out here to train in his own skills. Ozpin allowed him to use one of the training grounds to further advance his own destructive skills without damaging the school property.

After having healed up in only two days, Sasuke was back on his feet and ready to train. But the thought of Naruto being stuck here with only a few skills gave him a moment to pause and make a life choice that he knew would change him for the better or drive him crazy. Right now it wasn't really all that bad. It made things easier for him and was a lot of fun to watch.

"Okay," Emert said as he scratched at his nose when an itch hit him for a moment. "Forget the fact of how it works. Let's focus on the more important question that I have right now." He gestured once more to the fight at hand. "How are you out there and right here at the same time?"

And that was the question of the hour. How was Sasuke standing right beside them when a shirtless version of him was out there fighting alongside his equally shirtless friend? Well when Sasuke came to his choice to help Naruto along in his combat abilities, he struck a deal with him. Naruto was to teach him how to do the Shadow Clone Jutsu, a skill he was sure he'd seen a hundred times at this point, but sadly, had never once saw the practical use in it for several reasons, and Sasuke would teach Naruto everything Kakashi had taught him.

The first reason for why this wasn't something he had ever taken an interest in was the obvious one; it took half of your chakra. In a ninja fight, having chakra was key. If you had none, you were dead. That was what made the Uchiha clan terrifying to fight. If they could see through all your moves, it didn't matter what Ninjutsu you threw at them in the end because they would copy it and throw right back at you. And if you were unlucky to fight one that used your chakra element, well said ability was getting thrown back at you at double strength for half the cost. The other big downside to this ability, as Naruto had so stupidly demonstrated, the tax it put on your mind was murderous.

After Naruto had passed out from his little moment with Cardin and the desire to eat more ramen, when morning came, Naruto was so out of it that any question anyone threw at him he gave a history answer to. Someone would ask him how his day was and he would reply with a location on the world map or the name of a general from a previous war. Naruto really did a number on his head and it took several hours to just to come out of it and act normal again. He was in luck that no one thought to prod him for answers to questions because the answers he gave would clearly have been wrong. Not that he probably didn't know the answers at this point, but twenty something clones dispersing at the same time was murder for your brain.

So Sasuke had decided to take things slow. He created two clones. One that was out there fighting him alongside the army of Naruto's, using its Sharingan eye to make it a challenge, and a second to stand and wait for the next match while talking to his friends. Team JNPR was supposed to be out here in a little bit with team RWBY to see how his training was going, but they were going to get something to eat before coming out here. So far, everything was working out good. Nothing was broken and no one else was getting hurt in this process. The only person to really suffer out of this was Naruto, but he'd sleep anything his clones did to him off. Probably the funniest thing out of this was that Naruto was furious with his clones was trying to kill his brain so he made a bunch to beat up.

Shame it wasn't working in his favor.

If Sasuke didn't overdo this training the next portion to this was chakra control for Naruto. Sasuke wasn't going to brag or anything about chakra control, but he knew his was also terrible because of his own high reserves. Naruto just happened to have enough chakra to power a city for years if they ever found a way to do such a thing. Kakashi taught them all the basics for good chakra control, but a little experimenting never really hurt either. Sasuke had an idea that if he put Naruto at something that was slick and forced him to either stick to it or walk up, it would force him to use more chakra and thus increase his control because the same thing that happened back when they first started would happen. But there was a hitch to this. Neither of them knew any ice skills and standing around waiting for winter wasn't really an option either.

This was where Persia came into play. She had ice abilities. Her arrows could do a wide range of things, but ice was what they needed. All they had to have her do was hit a tree with an ice arrow and then send Naruto up said tree. Sasuke knew she'd help because she was nice like that. She respected Sasuke as both a friend and a leader. She was his partner after all.

But truly the biggest thing they'd have to tackle was the creation of their own jutsu. Sasuke could try and teach Naruto how to shot fireballs from his mouth, but he didn't think it'd be a wise idea. Naruto would either burn himself up, burn their training ground down, or blow himself up. Fire jutsus weren't exactly the nicest of skills a ninja had at their disposal. Neither was lightning, but that was more for its complete unpredictability. Sasuke feared creating other variations of Chidori for such reasons. For the time being he wanted to stick to making new fire abilities he could use.

There was also Naruto's lack of Taijutsu as well. Sasuke could try and help him there, but he felt like trying to get Emert to do it would be better. Sasuke had already confessed to Naruto that their age group had only four real Taijutsu specialists, and he was even being nice with it. Obviously Lee took first place because no one in their fight mind would want to fight him. He heard the story and even tasted the bitterness of defeat at the hands of the spandex wearing ninja. Second was Neji, whom he knew fought like Hinata, but given his age and duration at a Genin, made him far better than Hinata. Then there was Sasuke at third. Sasuke didn't like bragging about it, but he knew that he was third because fighting someone that could move faster than his eyes could follow was a problem, and fighting someone that could shut down his chakra network was a bigger problem as well. And then there was the person in fourth place: Hinata. Yes, Sasuke was willing to say that Hinata would take fourth in their age group only because against someone like Naruto or even Sasuke when they were at the academy, if she fought with a desire to hurt them, she'd have beaten them easily.

So where did Emert come into play?

Sasuke was willing to go out of his way and say that Emert would have taken third place back at their village if he was a ninja for several reasons. The first reason was that he was fast. Even without his teleportation ability, he was naturally rather fast. He wasn't Ruby fast and he certainly wasn't Kyuubi-Naruto fast. He was just fast. Blake could probably outrun him with her own ability, but since neither of them had raced it was an unknown thing. Emert was also strong. With his normal arm he could punch a tree down, something Sasuke had seen him do once before. With his robotic arm he could punch a hole right through the tough bone armor of Grimm's head. The finale and true reason why Sasuke would even go so far as to say he was better than Sasuke if he was a ninja was that his combat talent was a step above every else's. He was quick, precise, could analyze his enemy and find their weak spot. He was an ideal fighter and his father, before he lost the ability to fight, was a martial arts instructor.

Emert was already onboard for the training idea. Naruto was onboard as well. And with both having a similar type of gloved weapon, minus claws, Naruto could learn to fight like Emert.

Sasuke smiled. "I told him that I would teach him better control over his abilities in exchange for him teaching me how to do that. We went to the same academy and we were taught by the same person."

"But why didn't you ever learn this?" Persia grimaced as the real Sasuke took a hard kick to the side of the head from his clone. It wasn't going well for the real Sasuke. Naruto wasn't fairing any better against the onslaught of his clones that mauled him into the ground. "And why would you teach him? Shouldn't he know everything you know?"

Sasuke shook his head. "The man who trained us taught him only one thing and that was how to walk up trees like how I do. He taught the both of us that." He purposely left out Sakura. Not out of disrespect but out of honor and a need to forget her. He already did enough looking back on his previous mistakes in life. He didn't want to focus more on her. "But when we had this small festival in our area, the person who trained us took me and trained me only. Naruto was left to his own devices and trained by himself for a while. I think he got a master out of it that taught him the orb move he has."

Sasuke had a theory on that move as well. He'd seen it fluctuate in size a few times when they fought previously. There were moments were it was a smaller and easier for him to use, and there were moments were it was bigger and giving him more of a chance to hit based on its size. He didn't have the full understanding of the ability, but he knew enough to get by with what he knew. If his theory was correct, Naruto should be able to create a bigger version of it. There were also odd thoughts concerning the ability as well. In school they said that their chakra would lose its stability the further away it got from the user. This was a true statement, however, how could Sasuke fire off house sized fireballs from his mouth and make them keep the same size? Under Iruka's tutelage it would have shrank as soon as it stopped getting chakra from him, yet they never did.

So did that mean that what they were taught was a moderate lie or something else entirely? Was there a mechanic to those abilities that Sasuke wasn't aware of or was he just grasping at straws. He really didn't know and it was bugging him. He really wanted to find out what was up with it.

"How is it that hard to beat yourself up?" Jasper asked.

Emert laughed at him. "He's basically fighting his shadow. I'd like to see you do it and say the same thing."

Jasper conceded to the point and resumed watching. The fights were going by rather quickly and not in their originals' favor either. Naruto was not allowed to make more clones to fight for him or use a weapon. Sasuke was fighting without his Sharingan while his clone could. The name of the game was using your own weakness to win. Naruto's tactic was always throw clones at you in large numbers. Sasuke relied heavily on his Sharingan. Neither boy was fairing too well using their weakness to win. The only upside to all of this was that later on when Sasuke was fighting his matches he was going to be completely drained.

Sasuke fell on back and grimaced as his clone took a fighting stance a safe distance away. Sasuke propped himself up and glared at it. It was tempting to use his Sharingan on it and see how that would play out, but he wasn't going to do that. It would ruin the whole thought process behind this. There was a crash and a groan that sounded beside him. Sasuke turned his head just enough to see Naruto picking himself up with a scowl on his face. His stomach had grumbled earlier and he wanted to keep fighting or his body would realize how hungry he was and decide to shut down on him.

"Having fun yet?" Naruto asked through gritted teeth. Sasuke narrowed his eye on him before turning his gaze back to the Sasuke-Clone. It was thinking the same way Sasuke was about the next move. If their roles were reversed, Sasuke knew he'd be cautious to approach the clone for fear of it striking out against him in some manner. "How have you not beaten your _one_ clone yet, Sasuke?"

"You've yet to kill a single clone of yourself, dobe." Sasuke fired back. Naruto growled at him and sat up straight and gave Sasuke a challenging smirk. "I beat I can kick your clones' ass before you can kill my clone." Sasuke challenged. There was a way out of this. He could beat Naruto without his Sharingan when they weren't fighting seriously. Naruto couldn't win in a fight without his clones against Sasuke's clone, even if it wasn't using Sharingan.

"I'll beat the crap out of and then I'll beat the crap out of you!" Naruto jumped at the Sasuke clone. It was more than ready for him and the ensuing fight was one-sided as far as Sasuke was concerned.

Sasuke smirked at the dozen remaining clones of Naruto before a deep feeling in his gut churned. Aside from being hungry as well, there was another sinking feeling that gave him pause. Naruto was strong, something Sasuke took great care with. Normally, this many clones wouldn't mean anything to him. He could beat them down without problem. But this wasn't like all the other times because he wasn't using his Sharingan to face off against them. And his chakra reserves were low, meaning he'd be slower, weaker, and his reflexes would be shot as well. Not having the Sharingan was the biggest handicap he had at the moment.

But still, Naruto was predictable and he could counter him with ease.

The fight against Naruto's clones went about as well as he had expected in the end though. Naruto's clones rushed him and spilled over each other to take him out. From there it was a piece of cake. When the last clone died Sasuke turned and watched as Naruto finished off his clone. Confused as to how Naruto managed to pull it off, he dispelled his last clone and shuddered at the memories he received. Their talk was not all what he had hoped it would be and with the Sharingan active it had created its own thoughts on Sasuke's flaws in fighting without his Sharingan eye active. But the big thing that annoyed him was that his Sharingan wielding clone had lost to Naruto by way of a trick.

"You cheated," Sasuke accused, poking his smiling friend in the chest. "We agreed on no weapons. You used a weapon."

"I threw a pebble at it," Naruto corrected. "There was nothing against throwing dirt in its one eye!" Naruto smiled and started walking towards his gear. Sasuke took a deep breath to calm his nerves. He was going to pummel Naruto for this one. He cheated and he knew it. "You're just a sore loser," Naruto told him without looking back. He grabbed his shirt and threw it on. Sasuke wanted to burn it. It was black long sleeved shirt with an orange circle in the middle of it… right over his heart. It just screamed "target" to Sasuke. "Let's go get something to eat. If I don't eat right now I'll pass out."

Sasuke's stomach growled in response to food. He silently agreed as he gathered up his things. His team followed him, commenting on their fight. When they start probing for more information on the use of Naruto, and now Sasuke's, clone ability, they were greeted with Naruto's simple explanation. "It splits the users' energy in half. Only a select few could do it back home without running the risk of dying to it." And that was that after it. Sasuke wasn't about to go into further explanation on why the skill was forbidden, not that Naruto said it was, but they didn't need to know that the person Sasuke was trying to be like used forbidden skills. That was just stupid.

There was a loud crack and then a speeding blur darted out of the roof of the cafeteria. Sensing dangers the five brought their weapons up and ran at the cafeteria. Naruto jumped on the roof and jump up to catch the blur before they could hit the ground. Sasuke's team kicked in the door with a loud crack, turning it into splinters as they charged in with weapons drawn, ready for a fight. The cafeteria was a mess. Food was thrown everywhere. The walls were dented, cracked, and had holes punched in them. Team RWBY was down for the count with the exception of their fearless leader. Team JNPR stood victorious with Nora laughing loudly.

Jasper was the first to start laughing. Then the others followed. Sasuke looked confused to the sight before him. Jasper slapped a hand on his shoulder, rocking him back and forth for a moment. "Food fight," he said with a laugh. "How come we were invited?" he shouted at them.

Ruby dashed forward at amazing speed and caught all four members of team JNPR in a tornado. She stopped a few feet short of the back wall, creating a large dent from the air pressure of her speed, and jumped as a the manmade twister came barreling towards her with food, wooden splinters, dishes of every type, drinks, and of course the four bodies of Team JNPR. The team of four were hurled against the before everything caught in the tornados' path hit them hard. As Ruby landed, the four members of team JNPR hit the ground, caked in food and looking like a painting gone wrong.

"Never mind," Jasper corrected with a look of horror on his face. "I don't think I wanna be invited to this kind of stuff."

The other doors were thrown open as an angry Glynda Goodwitch strolled in. She waved her weapon of choice and stopped everything in its tracks. With a flick of the wrist she returned the cafeteria to its clean and perfect state. Not a single piece of food was left on the ground, walls, table, or roof. Everything that was destroyed by the furious fighting with food by the two teams was corrected and everything was back to normal. "Children," Glynda's voice was dangerous, but neither team seemed to notice, "please do not play with your food."

Naruto strolled in carrying Yang bridal style, a look of annoyance on his face. "Please tell me you didn't destroy the ramen." Yang fell out of his arms and ran up to her team to get the gist of who won and who was out for the counter at one moment after she was violently ejected out of the match. Naruto went into the back and started fishing for his favorite soup.

"Let it go," Ozpin told her.

Glynda closed her eyes to hold back the rage she was filling at the moment. She was disappointed with them. Who wouldn't be? "They're supposed to be the defenders of the world."

"And they will be. But right now they're still children," he told her, removing his hand from her shoulder and walking for the door. "So why not let them play the part? After all, it isn't a role they'll have forever." He stopped at Sasuke and said, "We need to have a talk in a little bit. Bring Naruto with you." Sasuke nodded without looking at Ozpin. He was too busy watching Naruto come out with a bowl of ramen to really care about anything else.

(-)

"So Sasuke can do the thing Naruto can do now?" Weiss fumed.

One of the great many things about Beacon was that it took its decoration, its rooms, and yes, it's bathroom, very seriously. They wanted to make people feel at home, but also remind their students that it was a school. They did have bathrooms with working showers in their dorms, but they also had them in their locker rooms for use after matches or if you had just gotten into a big team battle with food. In this case, the females of said fight were using the locker room showers to clean themselves after their food fight.

Persia, the only female on team JSPR, was happy to indulge in some girl time with her friends. With Coco getting rest for her big job in a few days, it wasn't like she had many other people she could spend time with. And obviously the top of choice was her whereabouts during the fight. Sasuke hadn't said that his training with Naruto was a secret, so it wasn't something she could feel guilty in talking about.

"Yeah, but he can't make as many and the stress it puts on him is terrible." Persia was in the process of examining her nails as the six girls showered. There was a low whisper of a moan, either in pleasure or annoyance, which came from Blake's shower. Persia rolled her eyes and figured it was the first one. "It wasn't really that impressive. They used it for fighting and testing themselves."

"Why would Sasuke agree to teach Naruto anything?" Pyrrha asked. The water stopped at her shower and she came out drying her hair. Persia kept her eyes forward and didn't bother turning to look at her. She'd seen her once before. Her chest annoyed her. "Naruto is a teachers' assistant. Why does he have to receive any combat training at all?" Persia shrugged. Sasuke hadn't given them a good reason. He simply said it was the right thing to do and that had been the end of that conversation. Pyrrha thought more on it before Yang's voice cut through the music of water hitting flesh and tiles.

"Naruto was treated poorly as a child. He had no one to look after him and he was treated like a monster. To the world at large, even if he's human, he was still treated like a Faunus. It's not that much of a stretch to assume that he might not have received the best training. But the fact that he got into Beacon, even as a teachers' assistant, proves he's got skill. I mean, look at all the things he can do before he had a weapon." And that was the scary truth of the matter. What Naruto could do with a weapon put the fear of God into a lot of people. His strength alone was inspiring. The worst part about it all was that someone like Sasuke had been paired up with him and tried to kill him for what seemed like two times.

"It's more than just that," Ruby's timid voice came through a moment later. "Sasuke said that Naruto was alone and always searching for attention. So he resorted to pranking people for attention. But for a whole town to hate him is just…"

Blake stepped out with her hair pooled over her breasts. She grabbed a towel and rubbed gently around her cat ears. She knew that Pyrrha and Nora were aware of her Faunus features. Weiss couldn't keep a secret. "Before their last fight I spoke to Naruto," she confessed. The others came out drying and started drying off. Blake stared at the towel in thought for a bit before she finished drying off and continuing. "He told me that his entire village looked at him with fear and contempt. He couldn't make any friends, and no matter how hard he fought, people wouldn't accept him. He just wanted their acceptance or to have them at least not hate him. But every time he ran into battle his victory was stolen from him by Sasuke. Sasuke never said anything. People assumed he didn't do it and that Sasuke did."

"That's terrible of them." Pyrrha's knuckles turned white at the thought of such people. "How could he endure all of that? That's just…"

"Inhuman?" Persia finished with an arched brow. "The world isn't pretty. I think it's clear that Naruto did everything he thought he could, but it wasn't enough. Sasuke hasn't talked about much anymore since their fight. Today was the first day they showed any signs of friendship that I've seen. They were around each other training and beating up each other's clones for training. Whether they remain as friends is unknown to me right now and to be fair, I don't care. Naruto is powerful, I'll give him that. But he's still an idiot."

"Well at least we can agree on that," Weiss confessed with a scowl.

"Sasuke said something odd about him, though." Pyrrha adjusted her bra and smiled. "He told us that anyone who fights him usually ends up being his ally in the end. Naruto has a gift that makes people want to join his cause and become a better person. Some people just seem to take longer than others."

Pyrrha sat down on the bench provided. "Everything that I've fought for has been taken from me. Back home I was hated and my purpose-in all the world there was no one who needed me-I've become unnecessary." Blake's words stunned Pyrrha into silence. "That was what we talked about. He said those exact words to me. I'm not trying to be cruel towards Sasuke, but really, this is more than just his fault. If humans had been nicer to him, showed him that he was worth something, then maybe he wouldn't be as hard as he is on himself."

"Well if you're kicked down enough times, that's bound to happen," Yang pointed out. She rung her hair out and finished drying it with a towel.

Blake shook her head and finished getting dressed. "That's not how he is and you know it. Sasuke told us," she looked at Pyrrha as she continued, "that Naruto is the type to never give up. Sure, he may get sad about something or angry, but he's never one to give up. If he gave up, he'd have given up on life a long time ago and he never did. He's just searching for something more to his life. Perhaps that's why Ozpin allowed him to be here. Not because he's powerful or because he's not the brightest, but because no matter what anyone says or does to him, he's never going to give up. He will always fight and be the one who goes charging in first for his friends."

Persia pushed off the wall she was leaning against and walked past the group. "I only came in here to tell you about what we did and to have girl time with you all. If this is what your idea of girl time is, then I think I'll go spend time with the boys." She gave a mock wave as she departed. Hopefully Jasper was up for something. She liked him more than Emert.

(-)

"Thank you for joining us." Ozpin sat behind his desk with his usual grin. Glynda was off to the side scowling. But there was a third person in the room that wasn't Qrow that was in the office. He wore a white military uniform with his right hand covered by a white glove. "Sasuke, Naruto, this is General James Ironwood. He's from Atlas and has been trying to find a method to get you back home. I felt it wise for the two of you to meet him since he's here for the Vytal Festival."

James walked forward, his left hand out for them to take. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you. Oz has talked about you a bit. He says that you're trying to be a Hunter." He shook Sasuke's hand and then turned towards Naruto. The blond looked at his hand and then to him before taking it and smiling. "I'm happy to say that I am finding a way to send you back, but unfortunately the method we're using isn't showing any promise right now. But don't fret, we are making strides in sending you back."

Naruto practically beamed happiness. "Thanks!"

"I wouldn't thank me just yet. We haven't perfected it and are a long way from making any real steps in getting you back home, but I have heard that you are taking a role as a teachers' assistant. It's hard to believe that Oz would hire someone as young as you for the job. Or allow _you_ to join."

Sasuke arched a brow and glanced at Ozpin. "I wanted you to meet him because he's the one helping to send you back. Please understand that the method we're forced to use is crude and hard to master. We don't want to send you back to the wrong world or send you into a void of nothingness."

"When you get it working, just get me." Naruto created a clone and shoved it. "I'll just send one of my clones in, kill it, and then figure out what's on the other side."

"How does that help in finding anything about where it's going?" James asked.

"Naruto's clones have a unique ability that allows him to retain memories from his clones." Ozpin supplied. James looked back in mild shock. "It has given Naruto a great advantage in learning more about our world."

"I can imagine," James admitted. He liked the idea of his ability giving him information on anything. "If it's okay, I'd like to speak to you both in private one day if you're okay with it." Naruto nodded and looked at Ozpin for an okay. Ozpin gave him a small nod. "But I'm sorry I must retire for the day." He gave a light bow to the two boys before leaving.

Sasuke's eye twitched. He didn't like that man.

"I'm sorry for dragging you both up here but I wanted you to meet him before he left for the day. He does run an academy and is overseeing his students arriving for the tournament." Glynda adjusted her glasses while Ozpin stood up and walked around the desk. "Naruto, I know that I've asked you to use your ability to give aid to each of the teachers here at Beacon. But I'd like you to do one more thing for me."

Naruto tilted his head and chewed on his lip. "Depends on what it is."

"I trust that you'll enjoy it." Ozpin smiled at the boy.


	15. Lost in Thought or Translation?

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

This story is entirely fan-made and fictional. Any acts that you might find offensive, disguising, inhuman, wrong or just don't like, we are not liable for. You are reading this story of your own free will and not being forced, if you don't like something we are not forcing you to stay and read it. Please leave the page and re-frame from reading the chapter and or story. All Copyrighted Characters belong to their respect owners. We don't claim anything that is not our own creation and are merely using them for fan made material.

We accept constructive criticize and help but being rude and disrespectful will not be tolerated. This is done for the fun of writing not to make every little person happy, while making people happy with are stories is great we are not here for Money, Fame or Fortune this is done for the simply joy of writing.

Chapter 14

Why?

It was the greatest question anyone had ever asked since the beginning of time. Most people upon hearing that word would associate it with something else entirely. The sky is blue because of the light reflecting off the ozone layer. Fire burns because it is hot. Good is the action of something you do that you enjoy. These were the usual answers to the great question. But sometimes there was more to the one word question than its three letters could create. It was the curse that all living things went through. Sometimes that greatest answer to it was the simplest reply.

Because.

Naruto was not this kind of person, and thankfully, neither was Ozpin. Naruto had little tact for this sort of thing and for good reason. Aside from the more obvious reason of not being taught to answer such a question in this fashion, he also had little patient for it. Ozpin believed in detail. He was a man that wanted people to understand something, even if he had to give them nibbles of the truth and the answer he was trying to make them learn. But sometimes the hand of fate needed to a shove as well, and Ozpin was not one to move that hand without good reason.

This was why his request was met with an odd stare from the blond and a furrowed brow from Glynda. "You want me to do what?"

Ozpin stapled his fingers together. There was more to this request than what he was willing to share. Naruto was an outside. Their petty problems shouldn't mean anything to him. With Sasuke out of the office, Naruto would slowly return to a more normal nature that Ozpin was lead to believe about the boy. Naruto didn't have to show off to Sasuke if he wasn't around. He could revert back the kind and carrying person that would charge headfirst into a problem to fix it without asking for anything in return. That was his nature. That was what Ozpin liked about him.

"I want you to start trying to spend more time with the other students and keep a close eye on them." Ozpin made sure to keep his voice low. Not in warning, but in fear to his request being denied. A good reason was all well and good, but if Naruto wasn't going to press for more information, he wasn't going to give it. There were details on his students he wanted kept under lock and key. Not for their safety, but for the safety of the world if the worst came rearing its ugly head.

"Why me?"

 _Why indeed,_ Glynda thought. She pushed her glasses up. Already she had thought up a number of reasons, all of them pertaining to Naruto's unique ability to self-replicate and gain their memories. What better way was there than to send out a hundred people and kill them at the end of the day to learn about the world around him? But there was more than just the ability and she knew it. It was also about his lack of a background in the world, his whisker marks, and now his red eye. If he covered the other eye up, he could easily pass as a Faunus without problem. All the information they could gain on the White Fang was at their fingertips and Ozpin wanted him to monitor their students. They had cameras and they used them daily. Their security force worked around the clock to make sure that each student was well behaved and not crippling another.

But there was more than just those reasons that came to mind. Glynda knew the one and true reason he wanted him to do this.

"Consider this a chance to prove to the students that you care about them." Ozpin stood up and walked around the table. Naruto watched him with a keen eye. "I've watched you since you woke up. Some students fear you. Others look to you with hatred. Only a few call you friend. You are powerful, and you are right to be feared for that power. I do this not because of Sasuke's talk about your past, but because I don't like seeing spirited individuals like yourself suffering the way you do. If you ever decide to join Beacon, I assure you that you would be made a leader. Not because of your skill on the battlefield, but because of your true leadership ability. I saw it the day you woke up. You ran ahead of everyone to fight an enemy you knew nothing about. You used your power to make sure that no one else fought. And while your weapon is proof of a kinder nature, it is also proof of something more." Ozpin gave him a smile. "You are a gentle person that when angered is a terrible storm. You're innocents is not ignorance. You're calm hides a storm."

"So you want me to watch them to try and make friends?" Naruto almost laughed at him. Almost. "That's really stupid."

Ozpin smiled. Well, Naruto most certainly wasn't dumb. With a sly grin he moved to the desk and sat down. "How much do you know about the White Fang?"

The question sparked an interest in Naruto. Glynda looked cautiously towards Ozpin as he waited for Naruto's answer. "They're a group that once tried to use peaceful protest for equality. Sadly that never went as planned and some time ago they started becoming violent. They were setting fires to shops that refused to service them and robbing supplies from companies that used Faunus as a workforce."

"Would you consider their actions justified? Cops let them Faunus die when Grimm show up. When a robbery happens, a Faunus is the first one to be accused. I know that not everyone is so cruel, but the world at large still sees them as animals… even slaves. And when you throw in the White Fang it only makes matters worse for those that are trying to do right by the world and live happily." Ozpin leaned back in his chair. Gone was the youthful face of a man with pride and joy for a school created for would-be heroes. His face was that of an old man, wise, battle hardened, and eyes so telling that the stories were old and forgotten. Naruto saw him no more as Ozpin, but rather as the Sandaime Hokage. "I want to make the world a better place, but with the White Fang doing these things, there has been some concern throughout the world that they're gearing up for something big. Recently they have been making it worse for all Faunus."

"Somehow I doubt that's really what you're after. So why do you want me to start monitoring the students?"

"A few days before you awoke there was a robbery attempt at the docks. This robbery was led by a known criminal, Roman Torchwick, and several members of the White Fang. Normally, this wouldn't happen. Eye witnesses testified to Roman treating them like animals. The White Fang would never take orders from someone like him, a human. There is also testimony of them working together on something big. Recently there have been a number of dust robberies that have put dust prices through the roof. Vale is low on this precious resource. The robbery in question was thwarted by one Blake Belladonna and Sun Wukong. Blake, as you know, is part of team RWBY. Sun Wukong is part of another team coming to Beacon for the Vytal Festival." Ozpin paused to take a sip from his coffee. There was more he wanted to add, but Naruto seemed onboard already for this. "This is why I want you to monitor them."

"You want me to monitor team RWBY?" Ozpin's lips cracked into an almost knowing smile. Naruto sighed and rubbed his nose in thought. "Why should I only monitor them?"

"The night at the docks proved that they want to change the world and believe they are ready to take on the task. I simply want to make sure that they don't get in too deep with the world they're going up against."

"I'll look after them," Naruto told him with a wave of his hand. "But if they go out and cause problems, I'm not taking responsibility for it." Naruto walked to the elevator before Ozpin could say anything else.

Today was going to be a fun day.

(-)

Sasuke fought back a yawn and failed. The library was never a place he liked to be. You didn't learn much of anything from it. They had the occasional book he fancied every now and then, but as of lately he wished he had more of their books from their village here. He had a clone out in the woods training and trying to grasp something he was sure was impossible. Any new information he could get was welcomed.

How was it that no one in their village had thought of this? Had they tried and simple failed?

The idea of hurling chakra out and letting it sustain itself was something that was worth looking in to for a number of reasons, but mostly so that both could acquire new skills. Sasuke wasn't blind to the world at large. The White Fang was a powerful and corrupt organization that needed to be put down. Sasuke didn't so much as want to end them as he wanted to first try and understand them. The books that Naruto had once been reading were insightful. It made Sasuke's skin crawl at how drastically they had taken things. Would things have been different if it was the other way around?

Aside from the White Fang and Grimm, Sasuke knew that deep down something else was out there. There always was something else out there. No matter how you looked at it in life, there was always a bigger fish. No matter how big you thought you were there was always someone else out there to pull your strings and make you dance to their whims. It was the truest form of life. The subtle hints and points and winks were all part of this. Love was one such factor in all of this. Out of love, hatred was born. If you learned to love you must also learn to hate. Sasuke already knew how to hate and he knew it well. But love was the ultimate mystery to him.

That was why he was reading a more… romantic book. It was one of Persia's books she brought with her.

The book was also about lesbians. Sasuke wondered if that had anything to do with her dark past or just some foolish experimenting as a teenager. Since all of team RWBY was female, did they have lesbian sex when they became sexual stressed? It wasn't like they could just hide those kinds of toys without the other person finding it. Blake already was called out on being a pervert when her Ninja's of Love book was found. Sasuke had immediately thought of Kakashi and could almost see her as him when he found out she read that stuff. Thank god Naruto did know just yet or he'd be calling her a pervert as well.

"You activated my trap card! Giant Nevermore!"

Sasuke groaned as he was yanked from his book to stare over at the loud girl. Libraries were a place of knowledge and silence. This was lost on Yang and Ruby as they played their board game with great enthusiasm while Weiss remained confused on the very nature of said game and Blake had no interest. The only team to truly use the library for what it was was the members of team JNPR. Ren was reading a book. Nora was asleep and mumbling about pancakes. Jaune was reading a comic book. Pyrrha was reading something else but upon seeing Jaune reading a comic book, quickly took it with a small cough and replaced it with a combat book. She then proceeded to happily read the comic.

Sasuke glanced over his shoulder to where his team was doing their own thing as well. Emert was drawing, but he kept looking at the four girls playing their board game. Jasper was playing with a yo-yo while looking at a photo he kept with him. Persia was reading another one of her romance novels, as she had already finished her school work for the week. When Monday hit she would undoubtedly have all her homework done in an hour. She was a lot like Sakura in that area, but she was useful and strong. Sasuke didn't want to hate on Sakura, but she never did anything short of that one time in the Chuunin exam where she kept them all alive through the night. And even then she had to have other people show up to help.

Sasuke wondered just how things got like this with him at times. Here he was reading a romance book in a library while the three teams sat around doing what they did best and he didn't care. His old self would have gotten annoyed the very moment team RWBY showed up with their board game and left. Maybe that was a sign he was changing?

"Sup losers!"

Sasuke looked up from his book, as did a few others. Sun was standing behind Blake with another person that was taller than him. He had blue hair and wore goggles. Sasuke thought of Naruto when they were younger for a moment. He suppressed a shudder.

"Hey Sun," Ruby greeted.

"Ruby, Yang, Blake… Ice Queen…" Sun pointed to each girl as he spoke.

"Why does everyone keep calling me that?" Weiss asked.

Sun ignored her and turned to his friend. "I never got a chance to formerly introduce you to my old friend."

"Uh…" he looked around, mostly at the board game the four girls were playing, "aren't libraries for reading?"

"Thank you!" Ren shouted, raising his hands in the air to his fellow man.

"Pancakes!" Nora snapped awake, snorting as she did. Everyone gave her a sharp glance before looking back at the two males.

"Shut up! Don't be a nerd."

Sasuke started ignoring them after that. He was more focused on his book at this point. Truthfully he didn't care about either boy. He already got the basic idea on what was happening here. Sun wanted to be with Blake and Weiss was now interested in the new guy. Really, Sasuke couldn't care less about two new guys showing up at the academy for the fight that he wasn't participating in.

His team already agreed to stay out of the matches. Jasper didn't care enough to do it. Emert had no desire to do any fighting in the thing. Persia was the only one that was actively trying to get them to do it. All three males knew why she wanted to do it. Her family was supposed to be here and she was going to show her father up in the tournament. Valid reason for her to participate, but not the others. They weren't motivated and it was too time consuming for them to join either.

Jasper explained how the tournament worked. There was a normal team match first. Then the winners would elect two representatives to fight for them in the next rounds. Following that, there would be a one on one match to decide who the victor was. Those that backed out could fight in another bracket as well. But that was where the problem was. Neither male was interested in fighting in the doubles round. That would leave Persia all by herself to fight off two other people for the match. They didn't want to put her through this, but really, they didn't have the desire to fight in the thing and with it being a three to one vote, she was sort of out of luck.

Persia had already pleaded her case to Sasuke multiple times, but he was putting his foot down. If the others didn't want to do it, he wasn't going to make them. She was heartbroken for sure, but really, she understood why they didn't want to do it. They weren't motivated to prove that they were the best team at Beacon for their age. Sasuke already got enough experience in working with teams to know that they all thought like that. Team RWBY thought they were amazing because they were a team of girls that blew up nightclubs and stopped would be criminals. Team JNPR thought they were amazing because they had Pyrrha, a girl with inhuman strength, a wannabe ninja, and Jaune.

Sasuke knew his team was good, but he also knew that there were teams better than them. When he was part of Team 7 he thought they were the best because they survived the invasion of Suna and Oto. They fought Gaara and lived. Sasuke and Naruto both fought Zabuza and lived! What other team their age had done that sort of thing when they were fresh boots on the ground? No one! Sure the other students that they graduated with all survived, but what did they do during that whole shit storm? Hinata was out cold. Lee was paralyzed. Neji knocked clean on his ass from fighting Naruto. Ino passed out. Chouji did nothing. Kiba did nothing. The only other person to do anything was Shikamaru, and he just bought them time with his stupid shadow move.

So really, all in all, Sasuke knew that deep down his team was good, but if he wasn't going to say they were the best. He had enough grace now to not do that.

Sasuke glanced up from the book to see that he was all alone in the library. He sighed and shut the book. He was almost done with it.

He saw himself out and walked through the cool night air. He saw Naruto laying in the grass and staring at the stars. Sasuke considered leaving him there by himself for a moment. He wrestled with the thought for a long time before he marched over to him and looked down at him. The idiot didn't even turn over to look at him. He just kept staring straight ahead like he was spacing out. Sasuke tapped him with his foot. Naruto jerked to attention and stared at him for a bit.

"You looked like you were thinking hard. Figure I'd save you before you did something stupid." Sasuke told him. Naruto chuckled and propped himself up on his elbows. He returned to look at the night sky. Sasuke glanced up as well. The stars twinkled like living things. He wondered if Sakura was doing this right now.

"You ever wonder why we decided to become ninja?"

Sasuke arched a brow. He had a valid reason. He wanted to prove to his father he was great, just like his brother. After the massacre he did it to get revenge. There had been no other reason but that one. The death of his brother was all he could think about and that made him stronger. It gave him the strength to endure that hardship.

Naruto fell back onto the grass and looked up at the stars. "I never really stopped and thought about it. Why did I join? What motive did I have for joining other than to gain the respect and admiration of the village? I could have left and done anything. But something made me want to be a ninja."

"Maybe we were brainwashed into believing that if we could mold chakra we had to become a ninja," Sasuke supplied. Naruto was willing to accept that. "But the flipside to that is that everyone could mold chakra. You just had to be trained on how to do it. Sakura could do it and she didn't come from a clan. Of course, neither did you and you could do it as well." Naruto nodded reluctantly. "Why are you thinking about that now? Did Ozpin say something?"

"…No…" Sasuke sat down in the grass. "I just started thinking on it."

"You don't start thinking on anything without having someone say something else. So what happened?" Naruto's silence was an all to telling answer. The former Uchiha looked around and sighed. "Ozpin asked you to do something. So what does he want you to do?"

"He told me not tell you." Sasuke snorted. That was a bold face lie. Even Ozpin did tell him that, Naruto wasn't exactly very subtle when it came to keeping secrets unless they were something as large as the Kyuubi. "I've been thinking about the village." Sasuke shut his eye with a tired sigh. This was an ongoing thing. Naruto would think about it and then from there he'd get angry and talk about going back. "Do you think they brainwashed us into believing we had to become ninja?"

Sasuke was taken back by the question. He had never assumed such with their village. Like the other children of their class they believed in the glory and fame of what it meant to be a ninja and not what it truly meant. Sasuke was taught that during his fight with Haku and their time in the Forest of Death. How many children died in that place? How many more would follow? Without seeing the true picture and history of their village he knew enough to know that it had a dark side to it. It was political in nature. Every person that sat on the council had a motive other than the security of their village. It was the same in this world. You couldn't trust politicians with a government, just the same as how you can't trust generals to lead armies.

So maybe there was a driving force in their village that left subtle hints in their minds for them to join the _cause_ and fight for their nation and village. If there was a driving force behind that, Sasuke couldn't see it. He didn't want to see it. He wanted to believe that his will was free of guiding hands.

"Well," he began slowly as he looked over at his friend, "say there is some brainwashing involved. Does that apply here as well?" Naruto shrugged. This wasn't the village. He was free to do what he wanted. "If there is any brainwashing in that village it would have been done through the water." He chuckled when he saw Naruto's lips twitch into a grin. "What about you? You think you were brainwashed into loving Sakura?" Naruto's face fell. That struck a nerve. Sasuke scratched at his scalp, annoyed that he said that. There was no point in backing out now. "What did you love about Sakura? What made her special?"

"She was pretty and smart!" Naruto made that sound as though it were obvious.

"And?" When Naruto have anything else to add, Sasuke shook his head. "You liked her because she was a pretty and smart. She was smarter than you, so you adored her for that. Her looks were also something you enjoyed because she was unique among the class. But aside from that; what else did you like about her?" Naruto opened his mouth and shut it. Sasuke nodded as though he had gotten through to him. "Here's the thing about love. It sucks. You find the person you want and you go for them based on looks. That's what you do. Everybody has their style with people, but that's not me."

"So you're saying I like Sakura-chan because i only find two things about her that I like?" Naruto snorted and sat up, furious to be put on the spot like that. "Sakura was kind."

"She beat you up."

"She was insightful."

"That's the same as being smart."

"And she was pretty."

"You said that already." Naruto fumed. Sasuke looked up at the stars and cracked a grin. "True love is weird. I'm not an expert and I will never claim to be. I see myself dying alone and without a family. But if I had to go for a girl," he paused and thought of all the girls he knew Naruto knew, "I'd go for Weiss." Naruto blinked. That was rather odd for Sasuke to say such a thing. "She's smart, beautiful, talented, alluring, desires to be the best, suffers under the gaze of her father for her skills, and believes that all people are beneath her."

"Sounds like you like her."

Sasuke shrugged. "I can say the same for every girl that you've met. I'm using her as an example. Take Ruby for instants. She's smart, skilled, fast, not one for looking pretty, desires to be the best because she wants to be the hero, and she's hyperactive. She's pretty much a female version of you when you stop and think about it." Naruto couldn't see their similarities. "All I'm saying is that you had a simple crush when we were little and in the village. If we're truly stuck here, you should get used to being here then."

"But we're not stuck here. I'm going to find a way home."

"And then become Hokage and be with Sakura?" Naruto bristled. Sasuke got up. Naruto followed. "Don't get hung up on one girl because you liked her. People change… I'm sure you can find someone here to spend your days drooling over." Naruto rolled his eyes and started walking for his dorm room. Sasuke snickered and departed. Tomorrow was a new day.

A/N

I pretty much decided to cut this one here because nothing I wrote made the transition to the next part really work for me. I tried for days before giving up and saying, "Screw it!" So the next chapter will start where this one was supposed to go to because nothing I did I liked.

Sorry.


	16. The Cold Truth

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

This story is entirely fan-made and fictional. Any acts that you might find offensive, disguising, inhuman, wrong or just don't like, we are not liable for. You are reading this story of your own free will and not being forced, if you don't like something we are not forcing you to stay and read it. Please leave the page and re-frame from reading the chapter and or story. All Copyrighted Characters belong to their respect owners. We don't claim anything that is not our own creation and are merely using them for fan made material.

We accept constructive criticize and help but being rude and disrespectful will not be tolerated. This is done for the fun of writing not to make every little person happy, while making people happy with are stories is great we are not here for Money, Fame or Fortune this is done for the simply joy of writing.

Chapter 15

Jasper awoke with a start as the cold nipped at his noise. He jerked upright and looked around while rubbing his arms for warmth. Emert and Persia were sound asleep, but both shivered under their blankets. Checking on Sasuke, he found the former Uchiha sleeping peacefully and unaffected by the coldness of the room. Thinking nothing of it, he turned to the thermostat and cranked up the heat a little. He coughed and saw his breathe. For a moment he was puzzled by it before he turned back to Sasuke and then to the thermostat.

It read that the temperature of the room was in the low thirties.

 _There is no way Sasuke's immune to that._

Jasper climbed in to bed and hugged the blankets closer to his form for warmth. He could contend with this tomorrow.

(-)

"Do you have anything in your life you regret?"

"Sure. I have a lot of things I regret. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious, that's all."

Naruto tilted his head to the side and tried to appear smart. It wasn't really his thing… Being smart was for Sasuke. Naruto was just a fighter. That was why he couldn't really figure out what Blake was getting at. She was always talking to him sideways in their conversations. More than once she had caught him off guard by a question that made him think more on his own past actions and past mistakes. His nights with her were always a curious thing. She spoke little about her life and asked more about his. Their talks always carried a weight of philosophical meaning.

This talk was more on the finer points of life and mistakes made by a previous version of your existence.

Naruto hadn't taken the time to notice when it started or how it truly started. She started spending time with him having these talks shortly after Naruto and Sasuke had their fight. While her team might not be aware of it, Naruto knew that Sasuke and Coco were aware of it. Nothing slipped past them and Naruto didn't much care if it did or didn't at start. Talking to her made him feel stupid when he looked back at his previous self and he was sure that his way of thinking had become skewered as a result.

Still, her question gave him enough pause to think further on the subject and reflect to Sasuke's words about love.

"What do you know about love?"

Blake faltered in her swing, giving Naruto enough time to get at her side with his blade near her throat. That was another thing they did. Naruto didn't know how to use a sword and Sasuke could only teach him so much. He grasped that concept the very moment they started training. Blake caught on that he had gotten the weapon to spite Sasuke. She agreed to teach him what he knew in return for a favor that she wouldn't divulge any information on. She swore it wouldn't be anything bad and Naruto had agreed.

Naruto stopped the sword from tasting flesh and grabbed her before she could fall. She stumbled back to her feet and looked at him funny. "You don't…" She let it hang there.

Naruto shook his head and turned his back on her. "Sasuke made me start to think on someone that I had loved and made me realize that I don't have an understanding of it." He sat down and grabbed a water bottle. Blake thought of Adam for a moment before grabbing her water bottle and sitting down opposite of him. "There was a girl on our team I cared for. Her name was Sakura Haruno. I loved her… but… when I look back at it I don't know why I did."

"You must have seen something in her."

"She was pretty. I loved her for that. She was smart. But when I look back at it those are things to describe something about someone and not what you could use to describe them better. You're pretty and smart. But that's not what makes you who you are. What makes you who you are, are you actions and personality. You're very shy, wise, like to read, and you like to eat fish." Blake idly wondered if that was how the world saw her as well. "But I didn't remember anything like that about Sakura and the more I think on it, the more confused I get."

It struck her hard then. Naruto was at a loss for someone he cared for because they were either not here or his eyes had been opened to a truth he had been blind to.

Blake ran a thumb over the clear plastic of her water bottle as she said, "Love is a terrible, violent, and beautiful thing. It can make people do terrible and destructive things or it can make them better people. Some people in this world will use love as a means of getting what they want. Others will use it to seek companionship and even a family. There are those out there that do it only for the pleasure it brings them and there are those that only do it to fulfill some twisted form of pleasure that they use to get off on. I've only ever been in love once, but it was a mistake in the end. I'm not looking back on it because it's what I'm running from… I guess."

Naruto put his head against the tree and looked at the stars. "Well she beat me up. I asked her out on so many dates and she turned me down until I had to go chase after Sasuke. We had our first and last date that night. She ran off to find him in the end. She cried for me to bring him back. I think that's what has me confused right now? He left her high and dry. She cried her eyes out for him. Said she wanted to be with him. She always wanted to be with him. But I wanted to be with her. She beat me up and mocked me almost every day… and I still went back to her."

"That just means you were dense."

Naruto glared at her and huffed in annoyance. He wasn't like their talks tonight. "I'm still dense." Blake rolled her eyes and smile playfully. "Sasuke said I should find someone here to fall for. Might make things better for me."

"Don't you think you're a little young for that kind of stuff?"

"No." Blake waited for him to continue with a _valid_ point. Naruto remained quiet for a while before she gestured for him to explain. Rolling his eyes, Naruto got up and looked at the twinkling stars. "Where I grew up, there were people younger than I am that would lead people as old as Oobleck into battle and they would have no other option than to listen to that person that was leading them because they outranked them. Where I'm from; as soon as you get this headband," he tapped his with his thumb, "you're considered an adult. That means I can buy alcohol, get married, smoke, and have kids. That's how it works for us."

"That's… really messed up."

"That's life."

"Life?" she asked between minor snorts. "That's not life. Life is something else altogether. It's about enjoying what you do. You're a child and you should do things normal children do."

"Well consider it robbed from me." Naruto turned his gaze on and then glanced through her. "Then I suppose I just live in a separate world from everyone else." Blake didn't catch the double meaning. Naruto unsheathed his sword and took his stance. Blake did as well. "How late do you wanna go tonight?"

"When you hit me without using your enhanced speed, we'll call it a night." Naruto groaned and started fighting her.

(-)

When the alarm sounded, Ruby jerked awake and fell out of bed, nearly landing on top of Weiss in the commotion of being spooked by the random blaring of an alarm clock. Only the small rustle of the sheets and the small yelp of surprise had saved Weiss from a potential head injury. Ruby, on the other hand, fell head first to the floor and whined as a result of her less than stellar wake up landing. Blake and Yang jumped awake at the sound of Ruby's startled cry and glanced down at their fearless leader as she nursed a bruise that was forming on the crown of her head.

"And this is why I say these bunk beds were a bad idea," Weiss commented as she finished pulling her socks up and making sure her skirt was low enough that no boy would get any perverse ideas. Combat skirts were one thing. This, however, was another altogether. Atlas Uniforms would have been a welcome over Beacon's uniforms with how short the skirts tended to be at times. "Never mind the fact that your bed is tied to the ceiling by some method you have not divulged to me." How did that thing stay up there? Yang and Blake's beds were more secure than theirs.

"It still is a good idea!" Ruby snapped back as she continued to rub her bruise. A few more minutes and it'd be taken care of thanks in part to aura. She glanced at the clock and then outside. The sun was just starting to rise in the horizon like a beacon of hope or dread for those that weren't morning people. "Did you all already take showers?" Yang yawned and grabbed her toiletries. Ruby deflated. She should have just grabbed her stuff beforehand and bolted to it rather than ask. Still, it did give Ruby a chance to ask a question or two to Blake. "How has your research nights been, Blake? Learning anything new?"

Blake sat up straight on her bed, her eyes narrowing at the question. Her training Naruto was sort of a secret. She wouldn't put it past Weiss or maybe Yang to know she was training him, but Weiss wouldn't care. Yang and Ruby were a different story. They'd see it as one of two ways: Either her showing affection for the mismatching eye colored youth or as her doing her part to better the skills of someone else. Her research was also a truth that they all knew about. With her previous ties to the White Fang, Blake was the only one to that could look for hidden messages to find out where their next meeting was and when it was going down. So far she narrowed down a few possible matches, but they weren't going to happen until later in the week.

Blake crossed her legs and tucked a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. "The White Fang will be having several meetings this week, but only a few can be located right now. The only one that fits in our time schedule is this Friday. That's their earliest I can go to find more information on what their next move is."

"How do you know it's not a false one?" Weiss asked. She was honestly curious. Gathering information from nowhere wasn't her thing.

"They have a few hard to miss messages that can be found in papers and other media outlets, but the better ones are usually hidden in the papers through crossword puzzles and special sites that lose the messages every few hours to make sure that no one pinpoints them since they're hacking in." Blake rubbed her neck. Naruto got her pretty good last night when their training ended. It only took him twenty minutes to hit her, and even then, he didn't really hit her at all. He simply used the butt of his sword and hit her in the back of the neck. It still hurt. "I used to be one of the couriers for these messages in the paper. There was a man he used to work in the group that made crossword puzzles for the paper. If you know what you're looking for, you can find it."

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to share that information?"

"As of right now? No." Blake wanted to keep that information to herself. The old man was still alive, but stopped working for them a long time ago. They stilled used his methods today only because he trained them how to do it. That was the only thing that spared his life. Plus if things got bad she could use it as barter for a quick taste of freedom. "What about you? Were you able to secure rights to the documents from the Schnee Company?"

Weiss deflated almost instantly. Her hacking abilities were none existent so she had to resort to making calls. She had a few friends that worked various days that she could contact, but sadly, none of them were currently working. She was able to get the schedule for them altered so she did have a means of contacting them now. "This Friday there are two employ's that handle record keeping for the Schnee Company that I can speak to that might be able to give me the information if I word it correctly. They still report to my dad. So if they're not giving a good reason for doing it…" Weiss let it hang there.

Ruby glanced between them and then to the door. "Well sis said she knows someone that could give us some more information on Torchwick. But since he's somewhere on the far side of town, she wants to wait until the weekend to go pay him a visit." She thought about who it would be but came up empty. Yang had a lot of friends out there. Some of them were people she had only gotten to hear of and not see. "So as it stands right now we have three places to dig up more information on what's going on."

"It's not much," Blake confessed tiredly, "but it's better than nothing." The bathroom door opened and Yang walked out covering herself with a towel. Ruby bolted in before Blake could even stand up. She scowled and rubbed her neck some more. Curse Ruby and her super speed.

(-)

Jaune rolled to the side to avoid the roundhouse kick from Emert and swung with his sword as he sprang up. His sword came close to tasting flesh but like all other times he fought someone that could fight without a weapon, his sword came up short and he paid for it. With a quick one two combo Jaune felt his entire body get racked with pain and darkness creep in around his field of vision. Emert followed through with a third punch that lifted the blond off his feet and presented Emert with a fourth blow via a high kick to the chin that snapped his jaw shut and propelled him backwards a few feet.

Jaune hit hard, but his aura still showed him in the green. He was fine and could take a few more hits. Didn't mean he wasn't feeling these hits though. His chin hurt something fierce.

Emert charged him and got in really close to him, throwing quick blows that forced him back. Jaune was forced back until a darting blur flew over Emert and morphed into the form of Blake as she swung her weapon for his neck. Jaune's shield sprang up and deflected the blow and forced Blake off balance as her foot slipped on a small patch of ice that appeared beneath her feet. Before she could fully gain her footing a shard of ice struck her from the side and forced her back. Jaune fall back from the close call of the ice shard.

Weiss ran after Blake and Emert. Emert blocked her thrust with his metal arm and reached out to grab her wrist before she could follow up with another thrust.

Up in the stands Sasuke watched with a sharp eye on the fight. The idea behind this challenge was to put two random members together to fight another random pair. Jaune and Weiss were fighting against Blake and Emert. The idea was that you would have to learn to work with people you have never worked with before in preparations for later jobs in life.

Sasuke glanced down at where Naruto was and thought back to his former training in the Academy during his childhood. Sasuke had his doubts that this was something Glynda came up with on her own. Naruto might have given her the idea for it. He wouldn't put it past him. They're lifestyle was different. Aside for their culture, their world was a militaristic one that wanted its warriors to fight together to achieve victory. Naruto and Sasuke had teamed up a few times in the past when he was different. They lost those matches or events.

Pyrrha leaned forward, following Sasuke's gaze towards his friend. Naruto was watching the fight with a very critical eye. "You think he can fight one of us?" Pyrrha asked. Sasuke gave her an odd glance before looking back to the fight. "How powerful is he?"

Sasuke tore his gaze away from the fight and looked at her again with a calculating gaze before he looked back to the fight. "Naruto is stronger than I am." He paused and watched as Jaune got a lucky blow on Emert's side with his shield thanks to a brief distraction from Weiss. Emert had clearly seen the blow coming but had decided to not avoid it. "You think you can win against him? I'm telling you right now that you can't win in a fight against him. Not because you're not strong enough. But because you have different morals than he does."

"What do you mean by that?"

The lights came on and the match ended. Pyrrha shielded her eyes from the lights as her eyes quickly adjusted to the brightness. Sasuke had stood up and was clapping in honor of Jaune and Weiss's victory over Blake and Emert. "We were raised differently, Pyrrha. We were taught to fight with the intention to kill or maim. That's something you don't have. As someone who's trying to become a Huntress, I think you should learn to fight like that. It'll save your life one day."

Pyrrha's eyes narrowed on the former Uchiha as he walked towards the leader of RWBY. Ruby was cheering for both sides, regardless of the obvious victory in favor of Weiss and loss for Blake. Yang just smiled, nodding approvingly as Weiss and Blake disappeared into the locker room to shower after their match.

Glynda stepped forward and began tapping on her Scroll. "Do we have any volunteers for the last match of the day?"

Pyrrha looked back at Sasuke for a moment and then to Naruto. The blond was looking at the students with a bored expression. "I'll fight," Pyrrha confessed. A few eyes landed on her. "But if I may, can I fight Naruto?"

Glynda paused in her typing to regard the request with an analytical eye. A few other people eyed her as well. Naruto was a teachers' assistance, not a student. So he wasn't bound by the restrictions of such a request. He could, if Glynda let him, fight anyone that requested to challenge him. That wasn't to say that Glynda liked the idea of it. When Ozpin had told her of his role after becoming a teachers' assistant, she had been less than pleased by such a thing.

"You do realize that Naruto is not an active student here at Beacon and is also not under the full medical benefit of the school, yes?" Glynda confessed. That was the ultimate catch to Naruto's employment. He wasn't someone that they could fully ensure for medical costs because he wasn't a student. The offer they gave him when he had come had been that he would get those benefits if he joined. He did not. Sasuke proclaimed that Naruto's advanced healing was more than enough to get him by. All he needed was clothing, shelter and food. These were things that Ozpin could provide with the job Naruto had. Anything else he wanted or required would require him to go out and do odd jobs.

"So you don't approve of my request?"

Glynda let her eyes fall on the blond. He seemed rather lost on the conversation at hand.

"The whole object of this was to teach you how to work with people you wouldn't normally work with." Glynda looked to the roster of students, flipping through them until she came across a few that hadn't fought as of yet and could fit some portion of the requirements while also taking skill into account. With Naruto's near inhuman abilities it would make fighting him a hard thing to do. There was also the small problem of his fighting style. He would fight to maim. That was not something that Glynda was teaching here.

"I'll fight alongside Pyrrha." Glynda paused and glanced up. Jasper stood to his full height, looking pleased at the thought of fighting Sasuke's former teammate. "But he'd need a teammate, correct?" Glynda furrowed her brow together and nodded mutely. She pursed her lips together tightly as she thought of someone that hadn't fought that could fight alongside Naruto. It was going to be hard to hide his lack of aura from them. She already knew enough about him to know he was the type to take a hit rather than dodge it if it allowed him to land a bigger blow in the process. "Sasuke," Jasper turned to his leader, "wanna side with your friend?"

Sasuke sat down and kicked his feet up on the edge of the arena. "Naruto can take you both on without assistance from anyone. It'd be pointless to pair him up with someone. I'm sure of it."

"I'll team up with him!" Yang exclaimed. Naruto looked back to Glynda. The teacher sighed and gave the authorization for the match. Yang jumped over the protective wall and walked up to her teammate for the match. Pyrrha and Jasper got down as well and took their stances. Naruto still looked somewhat confused to the whole thing but had enough sense to walk out to the arena floor and wait for the match to begin. "You think you can take on Jasper?"

Naruto crossed his arm, already in the process of molding chakra. "I can take care of him before you even land a blow of Pyrrha. Don't turn on me when I beat him without hitting him, please."

"Why would I turn on you?" Naruto gave her a sideways look and then glanced back at Jasper. The man had draped his weapon around his neck as he waited patiently for the match to begin. "You gonna use your sword?"

"Don't need it." Naruto cracked his neck and took his fighting stance. Pyrrha and Jasper stood side by side in their own fighting stances.

The match started. In the blink of an eye Naruto was on top of Jasper with a loud crack of his foot making contact with his face. Jasper went flying backwards and was knocked out instantly as the powerhouse that was Naruto delivered a fatal kick that would have crippled or killed a normal man. Pyrrha hardly had time to turn and focus on the blond before Yang was on top of her as well. Pyrrha was in control of her wits and was able to push Yang back with moderate ease. Yang was not so easily detoured and put up a good fight.

Naruto turned his attention back to Jasper. The man was already back on his feet. He massaged his jaw with an almost playful smile. Grabbing his weapon off the ground, he toyed with it for a moment before whipping it out in a wide arc. Naruto stepped back. A tether of energy shot out from the end of the weapon and zipped past the male blond towards the female brawler in the back. Naruto turned just in time to see Yang get shoved in front of it by Pyrrha. The tether wrapped around Yang's ankle and before she could figure out what was happening she was yanked to the floor and away from the redhead. Naruto jumped over Yang as she was dragged right to Jasper's feet. Before Naruto's foot touched the ground Pyrrha was on him. With one violent thrust of her shield she sent the blond sprawling.

Naruto recovered quickly in the air and flipped away. Yang broke free of the tether, sideswiped Jasper off his feet, got up, and ran to Naruto. The two blonds looked back at their competition for a moment before Naruto looked up to where Sasuke was. The former Uchiha's eye was twitching in irritation. Naruto glanced back at the two fighters as they stood at the ready. They were prepared for anything.

Naruto brought his hands together and in a puff of smoke that obscured both himself and Yang, there was a small scuffle happened inside the cloud of smoke. Ruby became worried as her sister's horrified cries fell silent. The smoke passed and Sasuke groaned loudly. A group of ten naked girls, Yang included, appeared out of the smoke, all of them in provocative possess. Though the smoke covered their naughty parts well, it didn't leave anything to the imagination.

The effect was near instant. Pyrrha was stunned into being frozen by the provocative ability while Jasper looked torn between beating up Yang for going along with the idea or beating up Naruto for coming up with such a vulgar ability. The crowd remained fazed until it was broken by a wolf whistle from a hysterical Nora. Then the shouting happened and Naruto returned to normal. The clones disappeared and Yang suddenly had her clothes back on.

"Are you an idiot?" Jasper asked plainly.

Naruto shrugged as Glynda walked out onto the floor, the lights turning on, and storming up to them. "This match is over! Uzumaki! A word, please." The blond shinobi shrugged as he followed the teacher into the hallway. "What is the matter with you? That move is very inappropriate!"

"It's a distraction ability. I could have done worse." Glynda wouldn't put it past him to do worse. "You said I could fight them. I fought them." Naruto rubbed his arm. Some part of him hurt from his training with Blake still. Stupid fox was doing a _stellar_ job at healing him. Perhaps it was a sign of Kyuubi's defiance for losing his paw to Sasuke. "Sorry about that. I won't take part in any of the matches if they request me to do so." Naruto walked off before Glynda could amend her statement towards.

(-)

"I heard you had a fun time with your fight."

Naruto sighed as he continued to swing his sword against a tree.

Despite everything wrong in his life, this was something he was happy to have. Back home he had people that cared about him, but here there was an complete difference to it. Blake actually worried for him because he was so out of place and so young in her eyes. His childhood was something she took great interest in. Why she did, he didn't know. He didn't care either.

"Do you wanna keep training today?"

"Yeah," Naruto seemed to snap from his funk and face her with his usual goofy smile. "Let's see if I can hit you twice today without using my speed or strength."

"Actually, I wanted to see if you wanted to talk today and try and find your aura and semblance tonight." Naruto deflated. Blake read him like a book. "You don't like trying to find it? Don't you want to know what it is? It can make you stronger."

It wasn't a hard thing for Blake to figure out. Naruto didn't know what his semblance was or how to activate his aura. She had come across it almost immediately after Sasuke and Naruto had fought. His wounds recovered quickly enough, but he didn't show the glow of aura usage when it happened. His body seemed to heat up when he was healing himself. More than once she's cut him up during their training and seen his wounds release a steady stream of steam as if his insides were catching fire. But there was still a few questions she had for him though. If he didn't know what his semblance was and couldn't activate his aura to shield himself, how did he heal himself so fast?

"I'd rather not." Naruto brandished his reverse blade and took his fighting stance. "So let's get on with the training."

Blake put a hand on her hip and gave him a coy smile. "If I manage to hit you before you hit me, we're going to start training you to find your semblance and master your aura. Got it."

"Then you won't hit me."

"We'll see about that." She disappeared before his very eyes. Naruto groaned. It was going to be a long and boring night.

(-)

Jasper awoke shivering and huffed in annoyance. He rolled out of bed and blinked. Sasuke's single eye bleed scarlet but it didn't freeze. A fine sheen of frost covered the windows and their sheets. There others were curled up and hugging their blankets for warmth. Sasuke was perfectly fine once more.

 _You can't control your semblance._ Jasper reached out to shack Sasuke but paused when he saw the corners of Sasuke's lip twitch.

"Itachi…" Tears slid down his face this time. Sasuke's visible armed crackled like broken ice as a small sheet of it formed over him. It broke apart instantly as he rolled over. His dream was a nightmare.

Jasper went back to bed. They were going to face the music now. Sasuke had an Ice Semblance and had no control over it.

A/N

Sorry for the long delay on this chapter and all my other stories. I've been busy with work and a trip to see family so I've had my hands full for a while. So this was something I always wanted to do as soon as I started thinking up this story. We're reaching the middle part of Volume 2, so things should be picking up in terms of fights but this was something I wanted to do for Naruto to show that he is still a loveable idiot and is still sort of the odd man out when compared to Sasuke. Naruto still thinks like his ninja self and will fight dirty, thus why he did what he did in the match.

Sasuke has an Ice semblance. No! This is not some stupid reason to just say, "Hey, you're the Ice Queen, I'm the Ice King, let's get together." The semblance people manifest is supposed to be a representation of their body and minds if I was reading it right. So Sasuke was naturally a very cold person in the series and his mindset was always focused on one thing. So when he got his aura awoken, it was set during the time in which his life was beginning to change, but because it hadn't fully taken, he gained this kind of power.


	17. The Weight of a Lie

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

This story is entirely fan-made and fictional. Any acts that you might find offensive, disguising, inhuman, wrong or just don't like, we are not liable for. You are reading this story of your own free will and not being forced, if you don't like something we are not forcing you to stay and read it. Please leave the page and re-frame from reading the chapter and or story. All Copyrighted Characters belong to their respect owners. We don't claim anything that is not our own creation and are merely using them for fan made material.

We accept constructive criticize and help but being rude and disrespectful will not be tolerated. This is done for the fun of writing not to make every little person happy, while making people happy with are stories is great we are not here for Money, Fame or Fortune this is done for the simply joy of writing.

Chapter 16

"Just focus, Naruto. This isn't that hard."

"If you say that one more time I'm going to smack you with my sword."

Sasuke considered punching Naruto right in his stupid mouth, but he held back for a variable set of reasons. To be truthful, Sasuke knew why Naruto was used to not getting any form of information about anything he was being trained to do. He'd already admitted to not seeing the logic in Ebisu's training when that man had attempted to train him for the Chuunin Exams. But, after listening to that story, Sasuke understood why. Naruto wasn't given enough information to come to the realization that someone was helping him. But this was also something else entirely new to Naruto that was destroying his core beliefs in a man that had been the first to look at him with both eyes opened.

Iruka had always been a man that Sasuke couldn't stand behind or beside. To him, Iruka was a teacher because he had little combat skill. He survived the attack on their village, but that didn't mean he did any fighting. To Sasuke, Iruka would always be nothing but a teacher and little else. But to Naruto he was something different. He was a man that had taken an interest in his life, his combat skills, and desired to teach him when no one else would without being forced.

Iruka had put in their heads that chakra couldn't survive outside their bodies. Sasuke was starting to think that he was only partially correct. The very nature of chakra was something that was formed inside of your own body through physical and spiritual training. This energy grew inside the users' body as a muscle the more times you used it, giving you bigger reserves along the way. Iruka had a method for increasing one's chakra reserves that Sasuke had appreciated. His chakra control teaching style was also something Sasuke could get behind. Kakashi's method had been useful tools that escalated to something more while Iruka's had focused more on control and not something you could use down the line.

Right now Sasuke was trying to teach Naruto something that not even Sasuke could utilize too well. The whole concept was hard for him to grasp only because of school work. Naruto didn't have that problem. And with all of his clones it wouldn't take him long to master it either. Between his studies and his other duties to Ozpin, Naruto could learn this faster than Sasuke ever could and once he figured it out, he could work on figuring out their other jutsu theories.

"How come you don't know how to do this? I thought your eyes could help you figure this out."

Sasuke clenched his jaw as his ire with his blond companion grew on him. "The Sharingan doesn't work like that. And even if it did, it wouldn't help."

"I could." Naruto grumbled. He went back to focusing on the task at hand.

Sasuke inhaled deeply, grateful that his friend was going back to work on his training.

Sasuke turned in on his thoughts and focused on his other problem. Jasper had approached him early this morning and brought the revelation of his Semblance. Sasuke had decided to look in on this revelation and try to find a way to control his new ability. This new power brought about a great deal of destructive force that he could hardly control or wanted to control. He hadn't had enough time to work with it to figure out if it was possible to be useful in combat. So far he'd grasped that he could lower the temperature and form a small sheet of ice over his limbs, but aside from that, his new abilities were rather useless.

This led him to call upon one person he knew that could control ice to a great extent. It also served as the reason for why he wasn't here at the moment. The current him was a clone mean to observe and provide pointers when Naruto ran into problems with his training. His real self was off with his trainer, Weiss Schnee, but currently he didn't know what the status was with his real self. His current problem was this issue with Naruto.

A loud crack sounded, ripping Naruto from his training and Sasuke from his thoughts.

"What was that?" Sasuke asked quietly. Naruto raised his katana and ran a finger over a small crack that formed along the side of the blade. Sasuke gentle took the blade away from him and examined it himself. Naruto looked bewildered that his chakra had done that to the blade. Giving a quick test swing, Sasuke became contempt that the blade was still good, but its integrity was now compromised. "Let's stop with this for today and see if you can go to town to get a new sword or get this one repaired."

Naruto nodded dumbly while sheathing the blade. "I'll go talk to Ozpin and see if I can get a trip to town today."

"Do you still have clones looking on the other jutsu ideas?"

"Yeah," he admitted as he felt another one of his clones die from chakra exhaustion. "They're not having much luck with it. But they are getting the concept down." Naruto formed a Rasengan and threw it. The spinning orb of chakra flew a good fifteen feet before its form collapsed and broke into nothing. Sasuke's single eye narrowed at the sight of it. "It's not much, but it's a start."

"It's more than a start. It's proof that this is really possible." Sasuke chewed on his lower lip. Something still felt off. "Do it one more time for me please. Disperse two more of your clones before you do though." Naruto blinked and shuddered as their memories hit him hard. They had been closer than the last set of clones that he had destroyed. Forming another Rasengan, he hurled it directly at the tree and watched it drill through a tree and topple it over. Naruto looked smugly at the sight of the destroyed tree. "Impressive…" The clone scratched at the side of his head. "After we get your sword fixed, we need to go back to working on enhancing your blade."

Naruto nodded silently. "I'm going to go talk to Ozpin about going into town to get my sword fixed." Sasuke nodded and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Naruto cleaned his teeth with his tongue. He headed to the office to speak with Ozpin. Maybe he could grab Blake and see if she'd want to go with him to get it looked at.

(-)

Weiss stalked around the former Uchiha as he continued his training over his ice ability. She wasn't going to lie about this. His "new" ability annoyed her. She had worked with the assumption that his Semblance was the ability to control multiple elements via his own odd form of mystical arts. So far she knew he controlled fire and lightning. While both were very common for any mystical user of this class, it was strange that they would deviate from their normal usage or gain the ability over another type of element so quickly.

Normally in a mage type Hunter; their powers were limited to certain elements. Only a select few could control multiple elements with their Semblance. Those people were rare and often seen as gifted people with powers beyond normal comprehension. Most could even be considered credible threats to an army during the war. But to reach the level needed they had to train endlessly. Some trained until they died without mastering it. Others trained until they felt they were ready to face the world, but by then, they were too old to do much but teach the next person in hopes of them making a difference.

That was how she saw him. Sasuke was a powerful mystic that took everything and flipped it upside down. He was a remarkable swordsman. He was fast, strong, swift, and brave. His power was matched only by his intellect. His cunning was without rival. Weiss respected Sasuke as much as she trusted him, which wasn't much, but enough for improvement in her eyes. How someone as young as him was as powerful as he was eluded her but she was pleased to see that her skills were a grade above his own for this type of ability.

Ice manipulation was just as tricky as lightning, but with fewer health risks. Lightning was unstable, prone to jumping at anything, and at times leading to the users' death. Ice was tricky because it required you to be cold and detached from the very thing you were using. You had to be devoid of emotions when using it. Act without thinking. That was how you had to use it. The moment you thought on what you were doing you'd lose your focus and with it, your ice. Weiss had spent user learning how to use it with her glyphs. While not her family's greatest ability, it was something she was pleased to see improvements on, along with the speed in which she could summon her glyphs.

Sasuke shook his head and Weiss came to a stop. "You're not trying hard enough."

"Thanks," he grumbled. His clone had been telling that to Naruto. Now his sword was busted as a result. What could have caused that? "Run it by me again on how most abilities like this work."

Weiss huffed, unhappy to be repeating herself again. Sasuke was using it as a stopgap to focus on his inner thoughts. Weiss wasn't aware and explained again. "Most elemental mystics have to use something as a medium in order to bring out their elemental abilities. Most people who have an form of an Ice Semblance must be near water or like me, can summon it through the use of glyphs. In order to bring out such power they must have complete focus and mental discipline." She marched around him, counting them off on her fingers. "You already have the ability to control both fire and lightning. So learning ice shouldn't be too hard for you."

"Except that it's a complete opposite to what he currently knows," Pyrrha pointed out. When Sasuke came to Weiss for help on this, Weiss turned to Pyrrha since she had a better grasp on a Semblance that required greater will control than most. Her ability to telekinetically control metal was a good enough reason to bring her. When she learned what Sasuke was going through, she jumped at the chance to help him. "His body is making him learn something that goes against everything he already knows how to control."

"Believe me, I'm already aware of that," Weiss snapped. She had more research to do before their operation this Friday. Today was Wednesday. She wanted to be prepared for anything. "How is it you're just now getting this power? Shouldn't you have learned it before fire and lightning?"

Sasuke got lucky and came from his thoughts as she asked the question. "My family only ever used fire and lightning. Consider me the black sheep of the family."

"Or the lucky one," Pyrrha countered. Sasuke couldn't see himself as lucky. His brother murdered their family, left him alive, and now because of his insane lust for power he was here learning a new ability and stuck with his former teammate that would break his legs and take him once a way back was found. He didn't see any of that as being lucky. "Sasuke, what were you dreaming about when they first realized you had this power?"

"I fail to see how that would aid us here." He flexed his hand and a sheet of ice appeared from his elbow to his wrist. He flexed again and it shattered like glass. "This is all I can do. But Jasper said I froze my entire bed in my sleep and lowered the temperature to below freezing. And I wasn't awake or anything. That was just me at rest."

"Perhaps what you were dreaming caused it." Sasuke was ready to dispute her but Pyrrha cut him off before he could protest. "You've only manifested your powers while you sleep. Perhaps it has something to do with your dreams. So what were you dreaming about?"

The former Uchiha turned his back on them and stared at the setting sun. They had two more hours of sunlight left. Sasuke wanted to spend them training with jutsus. Not this Semblance crap. He was still in the ninja mindset. Perhaps that was his problem? He saw this power as a tool of destruction and nothing else. It wouldn't be that much of a stretch to assume that his new found power wasn't meant for that. What could ice do that fire and lightning and a sword couldn't?

He paused and remembered Haku. He had used ice as well. It was beyond powerful. It was a terrifying. Sasuke feared that if Haku had been given a chance to grow he might have become a real threat. Thank god Kakashi put him down.

"I was having dreams about someone else that I knew that had ice powers," he lied. Weiss shifted from foot to foot. "We weren't what you would call friends. He was someone I knew. He was powerful and fast. He died, but it was becoming of us at that time. We fight, we kill, and we live. Failures die. Winners live." A cold and brutal truth to their world. Weiss looked mortified. "He died because of our instructor. His name was Haku. He went rogue and our instructor had no choice but to put him down. There was no other way."

"How could they?" Weiss demanded.

"Out there, in the wild, it's live or die. There are no points for showing mercy or being kind. It's either kill and survive or don't. I'm trying to escape that life. You could say Naruto's trying to go back to it. It's the only life we knew and I don't want it. It made me something terrible. And now having this… power… isn't helping me." Sasuke ran a hand over his eye and shuddered as a voice taunted him in the back of his mind. "Let's just skip the training for tonight. I'll sleep somewhere else until I get this down." Pyrrha reached for him but he was gone.

Weiss watched him go. _He's lying…_

(-)

Naruto got through the doors to the Academy when a speeding blur darted right into him and dragged him away. Naruto blinked as he found himself stuck up against a wall and a worried Blake glancing around. "Okay listen," she started, turning around and making sure that no one was listening, "you can't tell anyone about what happened last night."

"Why?"

Blake growled at him. Naruto blinked.

Last nights' training had ended in both of them losing. Blake lost her temper and cut Naruto after he made a good clean swipe on her bow, removing it in the process. Naruto had at start apologized and said he'd get her a new one, but it wasn't damaged. Rather, she said he had hit her and it wasn't in a good spot either. Confused, Naruto had asked what she meant. When her hand unconsciously went to her bow, Naruto ripped it off and found that he had thoroughly whacked her left cat ear. Blake apologized for stabbing him, but wasn't accepting his apology for hurting something very sensitive on her head. Naruto had hounded her with questions about not even a second later, and naturally, Blake ran away from them. Escaping the blond proved to be far more difficult than what she had first thought, and eventually conceded defeat and explained her story to him.

Naruto had listened with rapt attention and once she finished her story, he admitted that her life was terrible, but a need to hide one's appearance never solved anything. She argued with him on it, but in the end saw a form of logic in his words. What was the point in trying to aid the Faunus race if you hide your appearance and made it seem like you were human when you weren't? What good did that do for you? You hid your appearance, deceived your friends, and lived a lie. Naruto couldn't accept that, but saw her logic. She didn't want to be hated or treated unfairly.

So he silently agreed to keep her secret and hadn't told anyone yet.

Naruto removed her hands. "I haven't told anyone. Don't intend to either," he confessed tiredly. Blake breathed a sigh of relief. "How's your ear?"

"It hurts." Naruto started walking. She followed. Perhaps he could tell her his origins? She was smart. She already guessed enough about his powers to know they didn't exist here. Would she be able to understand what he was and where he was from? Maybe it would put him in a better light with her. "Where are you going?"

"I need to talk to Ozpin about getting my sword repaired." He drew the sword and showed the crack. Blake snatched it up and ran a finger over the crack. It was not going to be an easy fix. "Or failing that, get a new one."

"What were you hitting it with?" Naruto gently took the blade from her as they stepped into the elevator. With a little bit of focus he forced his chakra over the blade. The blade held fast for a while before the crack suddenly grew. He stopped and sheathed the blade. "How did you do that?"

Inhaling deeply, Naruto hit the emergency stop and exhaled with his eyes closed. "I lost our duel, didn't I?" Blake looked at him funny. He smiled lightly and opened his eyes. "Blake, I'm not from here. I mean that. I'm literally not from here. This power is from somewhere else. My world." Naruto shook his head and wanted to scream. "War is a constant thing. Not like here. My power is something physical and spiritual. This sword can't hold out against it. It's breaking because I have very little control over this power."

Blake stood in shook for a good while before sending the elevator back on its path. "If that's all true, why tell me?"

Naruto took his hand away from his sword. "I'll explain it if you come with me. You explained your life to me. How about I explain more about life to you if I can get this trip to the city for my sword?" Blake's bow twitched. "You showed me your dark secret. I'll show you one darker if you promise to come with me."

"How dark are we talking?"

The doors opened. Naruto glanced inside the office where Ozpin was sipping on his drink and going over a report of some sort. "Dark enough…" Naruto walked in and put on a fake smile as Ozpin turned his attention to him. "Ozpin, I need a favor."

Setting his cup down, Ozpin laced his fingers together and put on a smile. "Of course. Whatever assistance you need that I can offer, I'll be more than happy to do so." Naruto pulled his sword out and showed the crack in his blade. "I assume you have been thrashing your weapon against a few rocks here and there." Naruto infused his chakra into the blade and it cracked once more. Ozpin's brow rose. "The blade can't handle your power?" he whispered. His eyes drifted to Blake. Naruto closed his eyes. "Could you give us a moment, please?"

"Sure…" Blake walked to the elevator a shut it.

As soon as the door shut, Ozpin closed his eyes. "How much does she know?"

"I'm not a liar." Naruto's eyes hardened. "Whether you approve or not, I'm telling her. She's my friend. She's been helping me get better with my sword that I have broken. I have kept secrets from my friends in the belief that it would hurt me more than it would hurt them. Father once told me that secrets have weight. I'm starting to get weighed down by them. I can't go through my life right now thinking that what I'm doing is wrong. If this pushes her away, at least I know I won't hurt as much as I always thought it would."

Ozpin narrowed his eyes and for a moment a frown touched his lips. "You want to reforge the blade?" Naruto nodded. Standing, Ozpin walked around his desk, his hand trailing along the edge of the desk. "If you can have the blade reforged, what would you do with it?" Confused, Naruto glanced back at the elevator before looking back at Ozpin. "I'm not blind or deaf. I know that Blake and her friends are planning for this Friday." He picked up his cane and gave a test swing. "I'll give you the money if you promise to follow them and insure that none of them are hurt. Make sure that the one who takes the most dangerous portion is well protected."

Chuckling, Naruto scratched at his scalp. "What you're asking would require more tools."

Smiling, Ozpin nodded. "I'm sure you can find something of that nature on your trip to town. Please ensure that Ms. Belladonna isn't aware of your purchase. Get a better sword while you're at it." He placed a card on the desk. Naruto smiled and took it before moving to the elevator. Blake took a step back from the door with a shy smile. "Have a nice day in town."

Naruto gave a light nod as the door shut.

(-)

The trip to Vale was quick and easy. As soon as they touched down and started walking towards the best weapon shop that Blake knew of. Neither spoke until they had their feet planted on the ground. Blake pointed the direction to the weapon shop and Naruto followed.

"So how dark is this story of yours?"

Naruto inhaled deeply through his nose. "Why do you hide what you have?" The blond asked. Blake narrowed her eyes. "You look cute with them," he confessed. She still wasn't amused. Licking his lips, he changed tactics. "What has Sasuke told you about me that I can correct if it needs correcting."

Sighing, Blake crossed her arms. "He told us that you're an orphan. You were always stuck in his shadow and that no one ever took you serious. They hated you. You confessed that to me." Naruto nodded mutely. Blake took a deep breath before continuing. "You said something about a darker secret. What do you mean by that? You seem like a n open book kind of person. You're strong, brave, fast…. But you lack focus and skill. You also have secrets and it hurts you now. You're someone that has inflicted wounds upon yourself. I can see that in you, but as for why you hurt I can only guess."

Naruto smiled despite himself. "Sasuke pretty much told you truth about me. He left out a few details, but I'll go ahead fill them in for you." He stopped at a crosswalk and waited for the light to turn green. "I had a bad childhood. People hated me, ignored me, and treated me like I didn't exist. When I wanted training they wouldn't give it to me. But as time went on I learned something that sort start to put the weight on my shoulders." He paused and thought on where to go with that. His red eye twitched as the laughter of Kyuubi echoed in the back of his mind. "When I ended up here I… I…" he shook his head and started walking as the light turned green. "I never once questioned why it was done to me. Why, out of so many others, it had to be me that suffered the most."

Blake stopped him and motioned towards another crosswalk. The light was red. They waited in silence while Naruto collected himself.

"I'm an orphan, Blake. When I was little I spent years trying to find out more about my family. I was told they died during the monster attack. I never knew their names until…" His knuckles turned white with rage. "Until I meet them after I woke up from the coma." He stopped at the door to the weapon shop. "I met my father first and my mother second. He told me what he did. I hated him for it. I still hate. He's inside my mind. And I don't mean on my mind. I mean _in_ my mind. Warriors like me have this… mental existence where we go to meditate and think." His eyes narrowed as he opened the door to the shop. "I hate him still. I'm never going to look past what he's done to me."

Blake mulled that over as Naruto walked up to the shopkeeper.

"I need to look into getting my sword repaired or getting a new one."

The shopkeeper took the weapon and examined it. "Whoever crafted this was good, but this crack came from within the blade itself. How did that happen?"

"He's an enhancer type." Blake answered quickly. The shopkeeper furrowed his brow together and retreated into the back. The blond shinobi gave her a quizzical glance. "It's basically what you're doing to the blade. The metal that was used to forge it can't handle it. As a result, it's mostly likely the cause of the crack." Naruto shrugged. He couldn't wrap his head around what she was saying, but it sounded right. "They make blades from special metals and dust that enable enhancer types to enhance a blade with their power and not damage it. There are some users out there that put such terrible force on their weapon that it shatters. Just like how your weapon is right now."

"So what I'm doing qualifies for that," he said with a laugh as the shopkeeper returned with a basket of metals. "I'm not very smart with metals."

"All you have to do is put your aura through it. Whichever metal doesn't crack under the pressure of your aura is the one we can use." He handed over one of the metal bars to the blond. "Just focus. I'm sure that's not too hard." Rolling his eyes, the blond focused his chakra through the bar of metal. After only a few seconds there was a loud snap and a crack formed along the bottom of the metal bar. The shopkeeper took it and quickly examined it. "So the middle of the road type stuff isn't going to work."

"How does it work?"

Handing over another piece of metal for him to focus on, the man explained. "You enhancer types require a certain blend of dust to metal ratio that's not normally seen in most weapons. While almost everyone can do it, those that have Semblances that enhance their weapons often put too much power into the weapon, resulting in the blade's destruction. It feeds off the energy. All metal has dust in it. It strengthens it to something beyond normal metal, making it hard to break and hard to ruin. That's why buildings aren't made of this stuff. But let's say you can enhance the sharpness of the blade and you're really strong. You may sharpen the blade but the metal is still passing through something, and that something can break it. You're not enhancing the durability of the blade."

"So it works against the enhancing ability?" Naruto questioned. The bar of metal snapped in his hands. The man took it and gave him another. "Why not just give me a blade made of pure metal rather than something infused with dust?"

"You'd be the first enhancer type to not break their weapon. But since if I do that, you're weapon can't draw upon your aura. It completely ruins the very notion of what we're doing."

"I'd say let's give it a try." The shopkeeper squinted at him before handing over another brick of metal to him. Naruto focused for a good long while before he looked at the metal. "Pure metal?"

"No. It has dust in it. But the concentration for dust is higher than the metal count. But I can craft a blade from this. What kind of sword do you want?"

"Something similar to this one." Naruto glanced at the metal he was holding. It was a strange red. "Will the blade be red?"

"Sort of the tradeoff for this kind of metal I'm afraid."

"That's okay. Red's my favorite color."

"Somehow I doubt that, given all the orange you're wearing. But hey, what I know about kids these days." He took the original sword and started drawing up measurements. "This is going to take a while. Can you come back by about seven? I can give you the old sword back by then. I should have it repaired for you as well."

"Thanks." The shopkeeper disappeared into the back. Naruto and Blake left. "I need some new clothes."

"I'm not one for real fashion, but I think I can help you." She started walking only to stop short when she noticed that her blond friend had paused and was looking somewhere else. She followed his gaze to the top of a roof. There was nothing there. "You were telling me about what your father did. So what'd he do that made you hate him so much?"

Ripping from his train of thought, Naruto started walking. He put his hands in his pockets as he came up to the crosswalk. "My village was attacked by a large demon. We called them Bijuu. Stands for Tailed-Beast. This one had nine-tails. It's a fox." Blake blinked and wanted to snort in disbelief. She couldn't bring herself to do it. "He attacked our village and my father knew he couldn't kill it. It's a deathless creature. Incapable of dying a true death. We can kill it, but since it's nothing but living energy, it'll just reform. That's what my dad has been telling me since I woke up. So since he couldn't kill it and solve the problem, he sealed it in me. He was dying with my mother when they sealed it in me, and in some last ditch effort to cheat death they put a portion of their chakra inside me. So they live inside me as well."

"Having only seen video footage of this power you have, I'm assuming that creature is that power you used when you woke up?" Naruto nodded mutely. "So it killed your mother and father. And your father, before he died, put it inside you, along with their souls to be with you. That sounds like a tragedy and fantasy story mixed in to one." Blake walked into a store. Naruto followed. She pointed to the far right side. Naruto followed her. "So why are you telling me all this?"

"I wanted the weight off my shoulders." Naruto shook his head. That was a lie. Blake didn't seem to notice. It left a sour taste in his mouth to even lie like that after wanting to confess. Scratching his head he looked at one of the shirts on the rack. He wasn't impressed with it. "I had friends back in the village," he continued like he was talking about the weather. "When I learned the truth about what I was, I almost broke. Someone I cared about admitted to seeing me as the monster that destroyed our home… but he also said he looked past that to the real me. He said I wasn't that thing. I'm just the jailer. If I didn't have him by my side I might have done something terrible. I never had anyone to approve of me. But he did. He saved me from myself."

"He sounds like a nice man."

"He was the greatest person I ever meet. When I get back, I'm treating him to some ramen and thanking him for his kind words."

"Eat some fish ramen for me then." She gave him a sly grin as she pulled out a red shirt. "So the interest in red all of a sudden?"

"My mother has red hair. I told her it looked beautiful. She thanked me."

"That's what a mother should do."

"I know." Naruto glanced at the red shirt she had found. "You think it comes with a hood?"

Smiling, she looked through the rack. "I'm sure we can find something." Naruto chuckled and looked through the racks with her. He hoped they found something with a hood. How was he going to hide his appearance from Blake since she was getting the dangerous job and didn't want to be seen by her?


	18. Missing the Signs

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

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Chapter 17

"Steady your breathing, focus on your arm, and think about what you want. Envision it bending to your will."

Sasuke did as instructed, his one eye closed to try and gain better focus.

Pyrrha wasn't a great instructor for him. He knew that yesterday. Her method was to try and gain inner focus over his new found ability. It wasn't working for him. No matter how hard he tried to focus, he lost control and his power over the ice would slip. He could no longer force the ice to appear while awake. When he slept he turned an entire forest into a frozen wonderland. Weiss marveled at his power. Jasper and Emert grew fearful. Glynda began trying to give him lessons as well, but the more anyone focused on helping him, the worst off his control became.

Grunting under the force of his control, he conceded in defeat. "It won't work," he told her. Pyrrha seemed unconvinced. Jauna looked on curiously. "This isn't going to work. There has to be another way for me to control this."

"Sasuke, this kind of power takes time to gain control over. Did you gain control over your fire abilities in a day?"

"No. But they're not the same."

"Perhaps they actually are the same," the Ark boy told him. Sasuke shot him a disbelieving look. Jaune gulped as Pyrrha seemed to urge him to explain. "Well," he stammered nervously, "you're fire abilities require you to breath them out. I imagine that such an ability also runs the risk of you deflating your lungs. So it could cause internal damage to you. But your ice ability comes off of you and can change the weather around you. If the ice is coming from you then it could also potentially freeze the water and blood inside you."

The one eyed teen rolled his eye. "I already knew that." Jaune quieted. "But thank you. I'm aware of the risks of all three of my elemental abilities. But this one is different from any of them." Blinking several times, the former Uchiha licked his teeth and sighed. "I don't know what's up with this power. It's not something I'm used to and it only works at night for me."

The redhead sighed and looked to her leader. "Can you give us a minute?" Jauna glanced between them before nodding slowly. He backed returned to the cafeteria. It was Friday so chicken was being served. "When I found out what my semblance was, do you know how I figured it out?" Rolling his eyes, he shook his head. "I ripped out my earrings in my sleep and moved all the metal in our house to the ceiling where it was embedded. We had to get a construction crew out there to repair the damage and then professional help to assist me in controlling my power. They put me in a metal rom where the only thing that wasn't metal was my mattress. I was so terrified to sleep that I didn't for three days. When I finally fell asleep I was pressed against the ceiling by the mattress and the bedframe. I cried for help. When the doctors showed up to help me, they simply told me that I had to get down by myself. I was five when they did that to me. My parents said they were in the other room. I called out for them. They never came to help me."

Sasuke closed his eye and remembered his training with his father. "My father looked to my older brother as a prodigy. He was. He was gifted and I wasn't. So my father never really cared for me. When my brother began to act different my father turned to me and loved me. He taught me to how to use my fire affinity. He was so disappointed with me when I first used it. I stood around a lake and tried and failed to breathe fire. It went on for week. I burned my face several times. I trained until I passed out. When I finally managed to do it properly he told me I did good. But looking back on it, he wasn't impressed with me."

"I know you're having a difficult time with this. But if you try to ignore it, it will get worse. Believe me. You have to embrace this power and work with it to master it. This is a mutual thing, Sasuke. If you ignore it…" She let it hang there. He got the picture. "Perhaps we should take a break. Class will be starting back up soon. Lunch _is_ almost over."

"Alright," he breathed out tiredly. They joined the others at the table after grabbing their food. Nora was telling them a story about a dream she had beating up Grimm with Ren. Yang listened intently while Blake had her nose in a book. Ruby was trying to talk to her, but Blake seemed less focused on the topic of choice and more focused on the book. "One more class and we're done for the day," Sasuke told them. Jauna nodded, thankful that the weekend was here after their class. He had got tickets to a movie. "What are everyone's plans for the weekend?"

"What are your plans?" Ruby asked, tearing herself away from her talks with Blake.

"I'm staying around here this weekend to continue training," he told her tightly. He was going to master this power even it killed him. At this rate, it just might.

"Well I'm going to a weapon shop that's displaying a new weapon created by a small company named Omo," Ruby lied. No one could know what they were doing this weekend. She really wanted to tell them though. How cool would that make them?

"I've heard of them," Emert confessed tiredly. "They're a really small group founded about twenty years ago. They focus more on prosthetic limbs, but they do dabble in weapons. Lately they were making a new rifle of some sort. The Atlas Military are rumored to be trying to buy it from them for mass production, but both are keeping quiet on it." He touched his prosthetic limb subconsciously. Sasuke noticed it. No one else did. "Besides that, the only other weapon they could display right now is a pair of pistols that combine into a rifle."

"Yeah it's pretty cool," the weapon enthusiast chimed in.

"Well if you're going to a weapon shop, can you take Naruto with you? He needs to get his weapon fixed." Sasuke noticed Blake lift her book a little higher and Yang grin like mad. "Did I miss something?"

"Blake has already taken Naruto into town to get his weapon looked at," Weiss explained heatedly. Blake lowered her book and glared at her teammate. "What? You went to town with him without telling any of us. We were worried about you. You didn't even answer your scroll. We thought you were in trouble."

"I told you I was going into town to look at some things and that I'd be back shortly. I never lied about it. Why do you care what I do with my own time? I don't go judging you for what you do." Weiss recoiled and turned away. She returned to buffing her nails. "Besides, Naruto and I are going into town today anyways. Ruby, do you wanna come with us? You can show us the weapons. It might even be the same shop I took him to."

"Maybe we can convince him to buy them!" Ruby told them.

"Buy what?" Sasuke looked up and spied his former blond teammate. He was holding a bowl of ramen. Blake's noise twitched as the smell wafted over their table.

"A pair of handguns," Jasper told him.

"Why would I want a pair of guns? I don't like those things. They're too noisy. What's wrong with what I have?"

"What if you're fighting an enemy you can't get to?" Blake reasoned. Naruto sat down between Sasuke and Ren, suddenly very quiet on the matter. "I know you have a pretty good arm and even better aim when throwing your kunai. But I doubt you can hit someone that's above you with greater range than what you can hit, let alone throw at. Just consider the option. What would you be forced to do? Run at him? That person would have the height advantage and most likely would have a gun. While charging him you'd be at his mercy."

"I'd still get close to him. I'm fast enough to dodge a bullet." Blake considered proving him wrong right then and there, but reframed from doing so. He'd learn… eventually. "But I do need to go and check to see if my new sword is finished."

"You had to get a new one?" Yang questioned.

"It was damaged. They wouldn't able to repair it enough to withstand his abilities." Blake informed them. Naruto turned away from her. Blake closed her eyes. "Naruto is an enhancer type. His sword wasn't able to withstand the force of his aura and was shattering as a result. That's why we went to town. It was to get it repaired and get him a new one."

"You expect me to me to believe that on top of everything else he can do, he's also an enhancer type?" Weiss hissed. Blake nodded mutely. She sat her book down and had a faraway look in her eye as she laced her fingers together. Weiss snorted. "Is there anything else you're hiding from us that you can do?"

Blake and Naruto shared a very quick glance. Sasuke and Yang caught it, but took it two different ways. Sasuke could see it almost clear as day in her eyes. She knew the truth about them. She was smart. Way smarted than even Weiss. Weiss held herself on this pedestal like she was smarter than anyone else on their team. Sasuke knew the truth. Blake was smarter. Street smarts had an advantage over book smarts. The Faunus teen could spot a lie faster than a lie detector and she knew how to play along well enough to trick them into giving the information out. But he couldn't see how she'd use the information and as it stood right now, she hadn't told anyone it seemed.

Yang took it a completely different matter.

"You two are dating?" she blurted out. Blake coughed and did a double take towards her partner. Naruto blinked. "I'm so happy for you Blake! I mean, it's odd that you would go for someone as young as Naruto, but still, you're a ninja. He's a ninja. Makes sense!" 

"She is not a ninja," Naruto growled.

"We're not dating!" Blake exclaimed quickly. Her face was red from embarrassment. Naruto looked annoyed. "And I am not a ninja," she added after a brief pause. The Faunus teen collected herself before explaining things. "Naruto asked me to accompany him because Sasuke was busy with training. I agreed because I needed to go to town that day anyways. But we aren't dating. And Naruto is an enhancer type. He showed me his sword after he tried to enhance the cutting force of the blade. It was cracking from the inside."

Yang whistled. "That must be some serious power."

"Yeah but his sword wasn't calibrated," Ruby reminded.

Naruto got lost in their topic of choice and started eating. He focused more on his inner thoughts. The Jinchuuriki focused more on the problem he was having with his father and mother. Their first meeting went about as well as any child meeting their long lost parents for the first time. Naruto broke down in tears. He asked why. They said because they had no other choice. Naruto had wanted to not accept it, but when he thought about it, there really wasn't any other option on the matter. Knowing the truth of what happened around the day of his birth didn't help much either. He spent many nights awake from nightmares about the masked man that had almost killed him not even a minute after he was born.

The story was that when Naruto was born, a masked man had come and threatened to kill Naruto unless his father hand over his mother. His mother was the previous Jinchuuriki. This meant that the man that showed up had wanted her for the Kyuubi she had and by proxy was probably one of the Akatsuki members. It was strange that they had tried then and not after he was born. When his mother was taken and the Kyuubi was released, his father had no other choice but to comply as he had already laced Naruto's blankets with explosive tags.

Minato's quick thinking saved his life, but at the same time, it had ruined it.

Minato hadn't intended for Naruto's life to be like this. He had placed too much trust in the people. With the way that the world saw him, Minato lost faith in his people and wished the worst upon them, despite it being wrong of him to do so, both as a shinobi of their land and as their village leader.

Knowing that Minato was left with no other option than to seal Kyuubi away in his son for the safety of the village didn't really sit well with Naruto. Kushina even objected to the idea and had wished he choose someone else as well for the process. But given the circumstances, it was clear that they couldn't ask for the burden of holding such a terrible creature. What would give them the right to ask another child to do what they didn't want to do to their own? In knowing that, Naruto accepted what was done to him, but he still didn't like it.

The truth on what it meant to be a Jinchuuriki didn't help him either. They were used as weapons of war and as deterrents for war. Jinchuuriki were used in the wars and were often close to the Hokage. Learning that, Naruto had assumed that his mother, a previous host, was not truly his fathers' wife. Such doubt was pushed aside immediately, but learning what it meant in the long run didn't help any. How could they be so cruel to people like them? They didn't ask for this. But if they were meant to stop wars; why did it seem like a lot of wars were created over-

"You okay?" Naruto was jerked from his thoughts at the sound of Blake's voice. The others were gone it seemed.

"I was just lost in thought," he lied.

"Well class is about to begin. You're working with Professor Port today, right?"

"Yeah."

"Let's get going then." Looking around, Naruto arched a brow at her hand she was offering. "If you think I really care on what the others will think about it, don't bother. If they want to think we're dating, let them. I'm helping you because you said you'd help me."

Smiling, he got up and took her hand. "Let's go to class. But I'm totally holding you hand all the way into class. I have to worry about my reputation." Blake rolled her eyes and removed her hand. He chuckled and created a clone to deal with his tray. "Ozpin said that my weapon should be done today after class. He wants me to go get it after class. Wanna come with me?"

"I actually have plans tonight. I'm sorry."

Shrugging, the blond followed her to Port's class and waited for things to calm down as the class talked amongst themselves. It was another ten minutes before Port showed up. Naruto took role and once everything was set up, Port took over and started on another lesson about the fighting prowess of some of the larger Grimm in the world.

" _Can we talk?"_ Naruto's left eye twitched as his fathers' voice echoed through his mind. The blond Jinchuuriki closed his eyes and was pulled into his mindscape where his father and mother stood waiting for him. Minato was not at all like how Naruto had envisioned him. He was supposed to be a powerful man the radiated confidence. This man was not that. "Thanks…"

"I'm sort of working, dad. I can't come here all the time when you want to talk to me."

"Sorry for that. I just wanted to talk to you about your training." Narrowing his eyes, the younger blond huffed. "I know that you're trying to learn how to throw Ninjutsu that shouldn't be thrown; namely the Rasengan. You're control is great, but it's not enough for what you want. You need to focus less on pumping it full of chakra and more on giving it a solid surface to glide over when you're throwing it."

"As tempting as it is to listen to you on that, I'm still angry with you right now. For more than just throwing Kyuubi in my body, mind you. You were here, inside me, this whole time. When I needed someone the most, you weren't there for me. Obviously you were dead, so it's not like I can blame you for that in real life. But you placed the Kyuubi in me. You were here, inside my mind, the whole time. You even watched my life and all my struggles. You could have done something. Both of you could." Minato inhaled deeply as his sons' words stung him. "Just… give me some time. Okay? That's all I'm asking for."

"I can do that."

Naruto pulled himself from his mindscape and caught the beginning of Professor Port saying, "…studying on the larger, more dangerous, Grimm. All Grimm, as you know, get larger with each encounter they survive with us. Ones that have seen combat and survived encounters with us become smarter, faster, and tougher to bring down. These types of Grimm are called Alphas. They are powerful enough and wise enough to know how to survive against us. But they are still prone to fighting without thinking. The most common Alpha to be seen is Beowolfs and Ursa. There are other types out there that we have seen, but they usually stay near a centralized nest. Any questions thus far?"

"I got one," Naruto chimed. Port gave the go ahead. "How long does it take for them to attain that kind of power? And even then, what could really categorize them as an Alpha if they can simply get stronger with each encounter?"

"Interesting question and one not so easily answered," the jolly man replied. "Perhaps someone else can answer Mister Uzumaki's question?"

"I will," Blake said. Naruto paid rapt attention. "Each Grimm is unique. So for any of them to attain the status of Alpha, they must first survive several years. Because we don't the true live expectancy of the Grimm, we assume that this process can take anywhere from a year with a few encounters with humans to a few months with a lot of encounters with humans. Each encounter they survive they grow a little bit stronger, smarter, and faster. It's not uncommon to see an Alpha that can move faster than the blink of an eye or unreasonable to see one tear a car apart or throw it."

"Very good Miss Belladonna," Port praised. "But the answer to your other question is a tad more… worrying, I should say. Grimm will continue to gain power with each encounter they have with us that they survive. There are Grimm out there a step beyond that of an Alpha. For those Grimm we give them names. These Grimm are ones that have survived thousands of encounters with us and grown quiet large. There are some that are so big and wise that they have no other choice but to stay away from us and keep us out of their territory."

"How strong are these named ones?" Sasuke asked.

"Strong enough that not even the Atlas Military wants to deal with them," Weiss confessed.

 _They sound like they're on the Bijuu's level of power then,_ Naruto thought.

"Does anyone else have any question?" No one raised their hand. "Then let me tell you a story about a young, handsome, man that faced down eight Alphas and won!"

Everyone started tuning him out.

Sasuke fell deep into his inner thoughts on containing his power and using it better. But a more immediate situation took hold of him as he glanced over at Blake. She had been eyeing him strangely the last two days. He hadn't thought much on it. She had always watched him curiously. But now it was different. He knew why. Naruto had probably told her about his life and where he came from. He couldn't blame him. Naruto was being forced to keep a lie going that he had no information on prior to his waking. And even now the lie was getting harder to keep up. Sasuke had an Ice Semblance now! What if Naruto got a Semblance? How could he maintain their story then?

The former Uchiha began to wonder just what kind of Semblance Naruto would get if he was given Aura. It would have to be something similar to his nature. Naruto was a free spirited person, letting nothing get to him. He endured a terrible childhood and was a shinobi of great and terrible power. He was cursed with it, really. So would he be cursed with a terrible Semblance of untold power or would he gain something ease to control that offered great power? Sasuke did his research. There were a lot of unique and powerful Semblances out there.

But if Naruto got one, on top of everything that he could already do, would Weiss remain ignorant to it all? Would she start doing research into them? Ozpin made them exist in this world. He gave them a fake background and everything as though they had been born here. Naruto didn't have parents so when he was born, his parents were marked off. Naruto was considered a home birth and thus, no doctor was needed. Sasuke got a doctor for his birth and both his parents were marked off as dead, which on their world they were.

The bell rang and Sasuke was yanked from his train of thoughts on the matter. Naruto was already leaving. Gathering his things he made haste to get outside and find his former teammate. Jasper was talking with Yang about something he didn't care to listen about and when he finally found Naruto he was talking with Blake. He missed what they were talking about and watched them split as they returned to their dorms. Catching him wasn't a problem.

"Hey," Sasuke grabbed his shoulder once he caught up to him. Naruto jerked as though he'd been slapped and blinked twice. "You okay?"

"Yeah," he stammered. "Just the voice in my head."

"Probably shouldn't be saying that out loud." Naruto shrugged. He didn't care at this point. He had four voices in his head if he counted his own. What was normal about him to begin with? "I wanted to ask you something about Blake? Did you tell her anything about us?"

"I told her the truth."

Sasuke grabbed his harm tightly. Something akin to regret, possibly sadness, was in his eye. He didn't seem hurt by it. He seemed more relieved than anything. But the pain was still there. "Why?"

"Lies have weight, Sasuke. And my lies are starting to weigh me down. I'm not going to go around lying to my friends. I did that back in Konoha. I lied to you guys about the Kyuubi. I lied to Kakashi-sensei when I said that I was getting training from Ebisu-sensei. Ero-Sennin found me, took a liking to me, and trained me. All I did was run from Ebisu-sensei. All I ever wanted was to be trained by Kakashi-sensei when he became our Jounin Instructor. But he focused on you. He never focused on me."

"Naruto, think." Sasuke grabbed him and pulled him into his dorm room. Naruto kept his place rather clean, all things considered. Sasuke had thought it would be worse. "You can't blame either of us for that. Sure, I was a jerk. But think about this for one second from another perspective. If our matches hadn't been stopped because of the invasion, do you think, if I lost to Gaara, you could have beaten him as you were back then? I hate to say it, but you wouldn't have been able to. I was hard pressed to beat him, and I was trained by Kakashi. I learned one jutsu from him and spent the rest of it training my body to become stronger and faster. And even then, I didn't beat him. Sure, you beat him, because you had a summoning in the end and he pulled back his sand defense. But if the matches had gone as normal and I lost, I wouldn't have beaten him and you know that Kakashi would have pulled you from the match."

"I could have beaten him."

"Okay," Sasuke pinched the bridge of his noise and wished that someone from their world was here as well. He'd take Ino if it could get a point across to his blond haired friend. "But let's say I won the match. Let's say I killed him or made him surrender or whatever. Kakashi-sensei would have been training both of us to potentially fight each other. I'd know what he taught you and adjust myself to beat you. You would do the same. Kakashi actually gave you a good instructor to learn from because he didn't know about this Jiraiya-guy that was back in town. And even then, you learned something that I want to learn. Do you know how hard it is to be in the middle of a fight and have to make complicated seals just to do one Ninjutsu? You learned a jutsu that doesn't require that. Who else can say they learned that? Ebisu might have even had a few."

"But he wasn't Kakashi-sensei."

"And we'll never know if he was better than him. Kakashi had two things going for him. The first was his Sharingan, something he could teach me how to use. My clan is dead. The only other person that could have taught me anything is a traitor. So he had that going for him because he could teach me how to use it better. The second thing he had going for him was his title as the Legendary Copy-Nin. He learned a thousand Ninjutsu with his Sharingan and that was about it. His Sharingan was the only reason he was as good as he was. So did you think that in the one months' time we had to train I learned a thousand Ninjutsu and mastered them? I didn't. I learned only one and even then I learned it the hard way. He refused to let me copy it."

"He could have taught me something."

"Like what? You had stupid hands back then. I'd wager you still do. Flip through the seals as fast as you can to make a fireball jutsu. Go on." Naruto looked annoyed and began. Sasuke swung at his head. The blond ducked and stopped forming the seals. "See! You can't do two things at the same time. That's what I'm trying to help you with when we train together. So the you from back then wouldn't have been able to learn it. I mean it's amazing what you can do now with the clones since we know what they can do, but back then we didn't know that."

"That doesn't matter to me." Naruto inhaled through his noise and closed his eyes. He could hear his father arguing on Sasuke's behalf. Why did his other father have to side with the now _former_ Uchiha? "Leave me alone tonight. I'm not training." Naruto opened the door and motioned for him to leave. Sasuke remained in the middle of the room for a brief moment before his eyes caught sight of a duffle bag with various weapons beside it. "I have something to take care of tonight, Sasuke. Just go already."

"Do you need help?"

"I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah…" His voice was almost a whisper. Sasuke looked away from the bag and then walked out. Naruto shut the door and shut his eyes tightly. _I'm such a fool…_

(-)

Ozpin took a calming breath as he tapped on his Scroll and checked the information again. They were really going to go and try and save Vale all on their own. If the situation were different, he'd have shut them down immediately. He knew that telling them to leave it alone and let the cops deal with it wasn't going to be enough to detour them. Not when they had two people being hurt by all of this. The dust that was stolen came from the Schnee Dust Company and having someone steal from them was not to be tolerated. Weiss would seek retribution, even if she was to the voice of sanity in their team. Then there was Blake, a former White Fang member, who had stopped them from stealing said dust and learned that they were working for someone called Queen. Though she didn't know whom they served, she knew that the ideals that they once stood for were corrupted and that now they were using brute force, something she couldn't abide by anymore.

Naturally, Ruby, a young and impressionable girl with delusions of grandeur would jump at the chance to defend their fair city. Her innocence would shield her from the real and present danger as she searched for something out of place with the group. And of course there would be Yang, Ruby's older sister to tag along in this little adventure. Sure, this might benefit Ozpin in the long run, but even he was against the idea of sending children against the unknown. James already made it abundantly clear that he didn't like the idea of children fighting a war. Ozpin didn't like it either, but with the way things were slowly beginning to spiral out of control, it was best to do what was needed and not what was right.

But Ozpin had faith in their skills as a team. They worked well together and Ruby, despite her age and innocence was a natural leader.

Still, running on faith a few well timed maneuvers would only get them so far. Ozpin wanted to be assured that they would succeed and knew that if things went sideways they would need help in a big way. He wanted to keep James out of this and he knew that involving any other team would lead to questions. That was where Naruto came in. He wouldn't ask questions and he wasn't a student at his school. He could send anyone, but everyone he could send was working and would most likely be easily recognized out on the town.

Naruto would be hard to spot and would be harder to stop if things went sideways.

His trip into town had been fruitful. His combat attire now consisted of mostly red clothing. His pants were now a hakama styled with bracers on the bottom of his pants around his ankles and combat boots. A thick leather belt held up his pants and gave him a spot to hold his damaged reverse blade sword. A red robed shirt with orange trim covered his chest while a long-sleeved red shirt was worn underneath. On his right arm was a black metal vambrace with a blade sticking out of the back of it. His sword was tucked under the same arm. Around his neck he wore a red cloak with a hood. The hood was currently pulled down and showing off a black fabricated mask that covered the bottom portion of his face.

"Why red?" Ozpin finally asked. Naruto gave him a look that begged for him to be serious at the moment. Clearing his throat, the man held up a Scroll and showed him three lines carved into a wall. "These markings are things that the White Fang leave for its recruitment areas. Those markings are hard to spot considering that most of the walls have scratches in them, but since we've figured out which one will have the most dangerous job in this mission, we know who you simply have to follow. Can I trust you to follow Blake Belladonna without being spotted?"

"All I have to do is turn into a Faunus before I go in. No one will know the difference." Ozpin nodded and produced a briefcase. "What's in the box?"

"Compensation," he explained. The briefcase clicked open and inside was money. Naruto still wasn't very familiar with it. "Since the level of danger in this is rather high, I'll make sure you're well compensated for this. Sasuke was kind enough to explain some of your villages' economy. From what I understand this would be considered at best a B-Rank mission. All you're doing is guard detail if nothing goes sour. This should handle any other expenses you have for the time being until another job comes up that I'd like you to take."

Closing the case, the blond closed his eyes and could hear his father agreeing with the ranking. Why did they have to be in his head? "If things got sour, is there anything particular you want me to do?"

"I'd prefer it if you could keep causalities to a minimum, but if it's unavoidable, I do authorize it. They are terrorists that are trying their hand at genocide of the human race. I know we haven't treated them fairly in the past, but we never wanted to exterminate them. What they're doing is wrong."

"I got the picture. If I capture them, will you have enough space for them?" Ozpin's brow furrowed at the thought of it. There would be hundreds of them gathered at such a place. No doubt James would have a field day with them. His hands would be full for a long time with it. "I promise I won't kill them if I can avoid it." Ozpin nodded his thanks. Naruto departed without another word spoken.

(-)

" _Why do you want to go home so much?"_

Tailing Blake and Sun was harder than Naruto had expected. Blake had constantly looked over her shoulder and on more than one occasion had probably seen him. He had switched the color of his clothing and kept his hood and mask down for this. His hair was dark red and ending at just between his shoulder blades in a ponytail and his sword was made part of his cloak. His famous whisker markings were gone. To add a Faunus feature he went with a pair of dog ears. Mismatching eyes seemed less believing when Naruto had come across a pair of twins at school that were human that had such an birth defect.

The trip into town wasn't as hard as Naruto had first thought it would be. Tailing Blake might have proved to be difficult, but with her being forced to lead a confused monkey Faunus around, it was rather easy to get around her. As soon as she got her mask and led the confused teen inside, Naruto got one for himself and walked inside past a large man.

" _I want to be Hokage, mom. I want people to look up to me and know that I'm worth something."_

Walking through the crowd of Faunus, Naruto faked a smile when a girl with blue hair glanced his way. She had a dog tail.

Naruto lost sight of Blake and Sun in the crowd of Faunus and instead started focusing on what was going on around him. On one half of the room was Faunus that were current members of the White Fang. Where Naruto was were all their new recruits. These were business people, citizens that were too weak and afraid to standup for themselves.

"Thank you all for coming." The blond Jinchuuriki directed his attention to the front of the room. A man in a full face mask with a white vest and a black jeans stood atop a stand in front of a big curtain with the red animal head with three claw marks behind it. "For those of you who are joining us for the first time tonight, allow me to introduce a very special comrade of ours. I can assure you, he is the key to obtaining what we have fought for, for so long."

The crowd erupted in angry cries as a man in a white overcoat, black hat, and using a walking can stepped up beside him, taking center stage. Naruto narrowed his eyes on him as the rest of the crowd began asking why a human was here. _But the White Fang don't work with humans anymore._

"What's a human doing here?!"

"I'm glad you asked, deer-y," he answered cheekily. "Now I'll be the first to admit: Humans… are the worst."

" _ **I like this guy already!"**_ Naruto winced as the loud voice of Kyuubi exploded in his mind.

"Case in point," he gestured to himself.

Naruto started looking around for any escape routes. He wasn't finding any. He caught sight of Blake doing the same thing. Her ears swiveled in every direction. Naruto put his hand on his invisible sword for comfort as he began looking for a place to hide. A quick puff of smoke above him and a clone was in the rafters with no one being the wiser. A quick switch with via a replacement jutsu and he was safely up top. His clone could handle the rest if things went bad. If it died, no one would morn it. Well he'd morn it. It was a waste of perfectly good, albeit hateful, chakra from Kyuubi.

Grabbing his Scroll he opened it and started recording the speech the man was giving. Ozpin made sure that his recording would be sent directly to him. He could go over it and explain what they found. Naruto had no idea what he was really recording.

The man in the hat suddenly threw his cigar down. Naruto narrowed his eyes and followed his gaze. He found Blake and Sun.

Blake whipped out her weapon and shot a generator that controlled the lights, blowing the fuse and cutting the lights in the process. Naruto put away the Scroll and released his henge. Screams sounded and someone ordered for their capture. A window busted out and then something hummed to life. Naruto's crimson eye got sight of a mech running through a wall of the warehouse. The entire place shook. The Faunus below scurried around as the man from before gave them orders to start gathering up their gear.

It was clear that some of them were going to get the gear loaded up to be hauled off to the southeast base while another group stood by to look out for more threats. Naruto got to his feet and considered going after them. The squeal of a few tires got his attention and he released his henge and dawned his mask and hood. He snuck outside and found fourteen Faunus members of the White Fang loading up in vans with big guns on the top of the vehicles. Looking back at the warehouse, he sighed and made four clones to stop the vehicles as they took off while he returned to the warehouse to stop anyone from leaving.

Quietly he dropped to the railing and knocking out the four guards before any of them noticed with a few quick clones. The clones lowered the bodies to the railing gently and looked down at the group as they worked quickly at getting everything put up. The new members were allowed to leave, as they would only slow the active members down.

A gunshot rang out and Naruto felt his left arm go warm as his blood leaked down it. He twisted and jumped over the railing. The others opened fire. He grabbed his sword before he hit the ground and tossed it forward. It stuck in the leg of someone. He hit the ground hard, rolled, sprang to his feet and jumped for his weapon. He yanked it out of the leg of the man and kicked him at the largest group of them. Those without weapons rushed behind those that did. Naruto held his sword with one hand and pointed it at them.

"It doesn't have to be this way."

"You're not wearing one of our masks and I don't remember seeing you in the crowd, boy." The man from before said. He started up a chainsaw and held it with both hands. "I hope you had a good last meal. It was your last."

"My last meal was ramen, so it was good. And it won't be my last meal." Naruto flexed the arm that was shot and grabbed his sword with both hands. "Where I'm from, I'm a living weapon of war. If you guys wear those monster masks because people thought you were them and now choose to act like them. Then perhaps I'll take a page from your book and be a living weapon of war. Let's see if a monster can beat a living weapon of war."

A/M

And let's end it there. This chapter and the next one are going to be rather dark on that side of things. I know RWBY at this point is growing into the "Dark" phase, but really, that didn't hit until the next volume. Here, it's still sunshine and rainbows. So one thing I want to point out for this is that Naruto's got sort of the ultimate slap to the face here. One, Sasuke is speaking the truth. I know that I have said in the past with some stories, Kakashi screwed him, and by all rights he sort of did, but at the same time, I sort of like the whole idea of it being more logical like this. Sasuke has his head on straight in that mini fight they had.

And now Naruto is also learning that his parents have always been inside him and just never "wanted" to go cheer him up. He doesn't understand their purpose because they haven't explained it yet. It's not because I haven't shown it, it's just that they haven't gotten around to it yet. They can't let Kyuubi know that Minato is there to stop him from releasing the Kyuubi and the only reason they're still here is because of something else I haven't explained yet. Plus, it serves as a plot point later on for two events. The other reasons Naruto is a little messed up in the head right now is because of what he's learned about being a Jinchuuriki, which the full ramifications of that will get discussed in the next chapter. Not trying to say Naruto's about to go insane, but, yeah, he's sort of got a lot on his plate right now. And the last one is something that Naruto doesn't understand entirely, which is why the village would hate him if he was the son of the Fourth Hokage, a man of great power. He can't grasp why this wasn't public knowledge because he's still that little kid that thinks being KIA is an amazing title.


	19. Little Boy, Why do you Cry?

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

This story is entirely fan-made and fictional. Any acts that you might find offensive, disguising, inhuman, wrong or just don't like, we are not liable for. You are reading this story of your own free will and not being forced, if you don't like something we are not forcing you to stay and read it. Please leave the page and re-frame from reading the chapter and or story. All Copyrighted Characters belong to their respect owners. We don't claim anything that is not our own creation and are merely using them for fan made material.

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Chapter 18

"There you are." 

Sasuke turned his head slowly to the sound of Persia's voice. Making eye contact with her, he turned away and focused on the stars above him again. His childhood was rushing back to him each time he looked at those stars. Such a wonderful time back when he was a kid. He was happy.

Persia sat down beside him in the tree. Two of the trees next to him were frozen solid. Morning dew had dripped down them during his chilling nights and froze them into beautiful sculptures of art. "Jasper and Emert are wondering when you're coming back to the dorm. They're worried about you."

"And you're not?" Her eyes hardened. "I'm sorry. I've got a lot on my mind."

"I can tell. I'm here to get you over it. It's becoming very annoying and I wanted it to end now. So I'm going to help you overcome this block you're suffering from."

"It's not a block nor am I suffering from this." His scroll went off. Persia furrowed her brow as he pulled it out and read the name. Emert was calling him. "We can discuss this later. Hello?"

" _Where are you?"_

"Out in the forest with Persia. Why?"

" _Turn on the news on her scroll. There's been an attack out in town. Reporters are covering it as it happens."_ Sasuke put him on speaker and relayed the message. Persia yanked out her scroll and put it on the news channel. A warehouse was burning with explosions sounding every so often. Gunfire could be heard from somewhere inside the warehouse. Men in military suits with rifles pointed at it stood around the building. _"It was a White Fang rally. The fighting is still going on, but the Atlas Military isn't moving in to stop it. And one of their robots is going crazy on the highway. You need to get up here man. This stuff is really fucked up right now."_

Sasuke hung up on him and watched the live feed from Persia's scroll. Ice formed over the tree and Persia could see her breath. Sasuke watched and waited for something to happen. An explosion ripped through the roof of the warehouse. Debris rained down from the sky and forced everyone to take cover. The reported was knocked away by one of the Atlas Military personal and forced back into her van. A speeding red blur darted out of the hole in the roof and then slammed back down through it. A scream echoed over the gunfire.

"At least someone is doing something about them," Persia remarked coldly. Sasuke touched her scroll and brought it closer. She looked him over and then the footage as it continued to play. A body was thrown out a window. He wore a broken white mask. He screamed for help. Members of the of the Atlas Military ran forward and grabbed him up. "He's going be to be questioned thoroughly and then killed." Sasuke walked away. "Where are you going?"

"I need to talk to someone before I can come back. I'll definitely be back to the dorm tonight."

(-)

"You're little reverse blade sword isn't going to be enough to stop me, brat." Edward James Almost still grunted under the strength of the blond. He was the White Fang Lieutenant, second in command should anything befall Adam, and this little kid was beating him. He was not pleased by any of this. If they crossed blades, he was pushed back. The only thing keeping him alive was the boy's desire to not kill. But he'd already slain a few of his men, either by accident or by choice. He wasn't sure which at the moment.

Naruto grunted and let Edward's weight push forward along the blade. It cracked as a result of the strain it was put under, but he paid it no mind. With a powerful shove he hurled the man backwards and sent him flying. Edward was quick on his feet and hastily came to a stop before he could hit the wall. The blond was quick to return to fighting him. A pair of gunshots rang out before he could get within ten feet of him and forced him back. The bullets were fast and he worked quickly to either block or evade them. He took one round to the thigh and twisted as his leg gave out momentarily.

He rolled with his weight, planted his hands, pushed off, and flipped up into the air to land on the roof. He disappeared from sight and appeared only a split second later from the side. Edward rushed forward with his chainsaw and sliced him clean in half. A look of victory might have been seen on his face if he didn't wear a mask. The blond exploded into smoke and the man was left feeling defeated yet again. It was the same tactic with him. Show up, fight, flee, and send a clone. Nothing changed. It was always it that order.

The earth rumbled beneath his feet and he jumped to the side, evading a pair of hands that exploded out of it. They quickly retracted when gunshots rang out.

"Get off the ground!" Edward ordered. He scrambled to some crates and jumped up on them. A few others were there with him as well, watching the concrete slabs for anything out of the ordinary.

A scream from behind drew his attention. They caught the passing image of someone's leg as they were yanked into the shadows. There was a gurgle and then nothing. For an eternity they waited before a scream sounded and a body came flying out of the darkness. They saw the blond throw another one of their members. A woman was the unfortunate person to catch the flying body. She hit the ground and whined as his heavy form threatened to crush her. Someone else jumped down to her aid and lifted him off her.

"Tha-" The end of a blade appeared through her chest. They looked back and saw the body of the man had come alive. He twisted the blade and she cried her silent scream as her body was cut nearly in half by the blade.

The man raised his gun but he never fired. The sword clove through his wrist and neck in a flash. He tried to scream but couldn't. He collapsed to the ground dead. The body of the fallen White Fang member got to their feet and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Naruto stood before them with his bangs covering his eyes.

" _ **This is what you are, brat. A murderer… A savage… A ninja… A DEMON!"**_ Naruto gripped his sword tighter. His breathing hitched in his throat and he felt fire pump through his veins. His blue eye ached. _**"This is what you are. Face it, brat. You're nothing but a Demon. You are a living weapon designed for war. Nothing more. You're existence is for war. Why do you think your father put me in you? Because he wanted to protect you from his enemies? No. He did it so that Konoha would have a weapon!"**_

An aura of red licked from his body like a living flame. His blue eye turned red and a desire for destruction hungered within him. The mocking laugh of Kyuubi echoed in his mind. Naruto screamed and his blade broke halfway down the blade. The tip stabbed into the concrete. The sword chipped more and more as the red aura covered the blade.

The moment the first gunshot rang out, Naruto felt pain and hatred course through him. It was a rush that he knew was not his own. This feeling was that of the Kyuubi's. Calming words from his mother fell upon deaf ears. Words of warning from his father were turned away. He focused only the soothing aura of rage that came from the Kyuubi. Naruto raged against all of them as a special slice of his own madness began to creep in on him. None were going to be spared from this. Ozpin was right. They were terrible people.

Naruto's power overflowed from him. His sword could barely withstand the intensity of his chakra as he infused more power into it. Each swing brought one of them to their knees. They cried, begged for mercy, whimpered in fear of him, or stood and fought on. Some dark twisted part of him admired that about them. They were going to stand and fight against him, despite the power difference. Naruto was crushing them. They could hardly stand amongst his destructive force. And yet they wanted to oppose him? Why? They had no chance of victory. He was crushing them.

Edward rushed to greet him in combat. Naruto swung his broken blade and cleaved through the chainsaw in one swing. Edward stopped and looked at the broken blade of his weapon before turning to face the blond. Naruto backhanded him away and rushed after a few other members that were within arms-reach of him. He slaughtered them.

"Sir," Edward glanced at the speaker. "You need to leave! We can handle him!"

"Are you mad? We all need to leave!" Edward glanced back at the fighting. He felt light headed. Something warm slid down his left leg. He touched his stomach and his hand came back red. _When did he get me?_ He shook his head to clear those thoughts from his mind. He could survive it. It wasn't deep enough to be fatal. "Bring the cars around here and we'll leave. Our lives are worth more than this stuff. We can't win this fight. I'll have to tell our benefactor about this. And Adam…" He dreaded telling him this. Blake was here and then this man showed up and murdered all of their men and scared away their new recruits. Surely they could spin this, couldn't they? A singly boy slaughtering them all was just unbelievable.

Naruto turned their way. Edward reached for a rifle. His men shoved him out of the warehouse. He got to his feet fast enough and watched as the one that shoved him out was ripped down beneath the window. A scream sounded. A jeep showed up and he cursed his weakness for leaving them to die.

Naruto watched him go from the window before he turned back to the fight at hand. Those that remained had abandoned guns and replaced them with crude weapons. Raising the shattered sword, Naruto's eyes became lifeless. They charged him with a battle cry. Naruto closed his eyes and momentarily felt the pull of his parents trying to sooth the raging beast he'd become. _**"This is your future if you return home. You're going to be a terrible weapon of war."**_ Screaming, Naruto hacked his way through them and cried silently as he did so.

(-)

"How is that even possible?" James resisted the urge to yell. This was beyond unprecedented. This was the biggest mistake and blow to his military might that he had ever endured. How had they gotten their hands on some of his greatest military might was beyond him, but it was something he was going to tear apart everything in his military to find it. "Well find out where the leak came from and shut them down. I don't care who they are what they are. You find them and throw them in a cell. I'll handle the rest." He hung up, sighed, and massaged the bridge of his nose.

"Trouble in paradise?" Glynda asked softly. Her mood was offsetting. He knew why she was here. She tapped away at her scroll and before long had spun it around to show the remains of a Paladin. Ice, burn marks, and rose petals covered the ground. She tore it away from him before he could touch it. "Ozpin isn't happy with this. You brought your military here as a show of force and now innocent people are hurt or dying. If you had simply came by yourself none of this would have happened!"

"This one machine wasn't taken from my ships, Glynda!" She stepped back, unsure. "I just got word that one of the production facilities took notice of a shipment of them missing from production. They're not completed models. The one that was out on the streets tonight was one that was taken from that production station. We've already put in an investigation on the matter. I'm going to personally find out who was responsible for this."

"You might not have to look too far on that," she confessed. "Roman Torchwick, a known criminal, was sighted leaving the scene with another woman that we don't know. When we catch him you can him all the questions you want. Until then, Ozpin wants to talk to you."

James took a deep breath before nodding. He followed after her through the courtyard and in a matter of minutes was whisked away to the tower where Ozpin was waiting for them. Ozpin was looking at the video footage of the fight. He was not pleased in the slightest by the turn of events. James waited patiently for his lifelong friend to speak. Ozpin continued to watch the events unfold before his scroll buzzed. The headmaster was slow to respond to it. He checked it over and then stood up. "James, would you care to explain to me why one of your newly developed machines was tearing apart the city tonight?"

James shuts his eyes as he said, "One of my production facilities just reported a breech in our security. We're looking in to it right now. But I'm more curious about why there are reports of children running fighting on top of cars and destroying my property."

"I'm looking in on that as well. But what concerns me the most is that you have allowed members of the White Fang to take possession of some of your weaponry that you just proudly displayed to the people of Vale," Glynda responded harshly. "James, this is exactly what we were worried about. You brought them the means to weapons that they didn't have access to. Now, for all we know, they have access to them from your ships."

"We're not pointing fingers here, Glynda," Ozpin told her quietly. "But she is right, James. For all we know, they have invades your ships and wanted you to bring them here to aid their cause. While can't be too certain of this, Qrow has informed us that she has pawns and clearly the White Fang are her pawns. Torchwick is a man of many things, but he is not a symbol for the White Fang. He is using them. And I highly doubt that someone like him would work with them without them backing him for no reason. He isn't backing them, he's using them. And they don't know it yet."

"Then we find out if this Queen is using them through Torchwick. Perhaps we can get some leads on them and Queen if we can capture him."

"He's probably not going to talk," Ozpin pointed out. James took a deep breath and steeled himself for something worse. "But we do have options," Ozpin confessed. "We just need to wait for them to present themselves. In the meantime, the police and your people were able to gather a few stragglers from the warehouse incident and all of them are ready for questioning. I'll let you take charge on this."

Ozpin handed a folder to him. James skim read it before heading for the elevator. It sprang open and Sasuke stood inside with his eye narrowed on the man. "Sasuke?"

"I'm here to speak with Ozpin about something," he answered. He paused and looked at the man. "Have you made any progress on getting Naruto back home?"

"None I'm afraid. But we are still looking into it. Don't worry. We'll get him home safe and sound soon enough."

Sasuke grunted and let him in as he exited. James gave him a sad smile before the doors shut. With the Military head out of the way, Sasuke turned on Ozpin and pointed at him. "Where's Naruto? And don't lie to me either."

Glynda adjusted her glasses. "What are you talking about?"

Crossing his arms, the former Uchiha's Sharingan sprang to life. Ozpin laced his fingers together at the sight of the powerful eye. He didn't have a workaround for that kind of power, not yet anyways. "Sasuke, what you're asking can't leave this room. Do you understand?" Nodding slowly, Ozpin pressed a button on his desk. There was a click and the elevator locked. He tensed up and felt a desire to fight forge in him. "Before I answer your question, I have one of my own. I do hope you will answer truthfully, as I do not like being lied to for no reason than to hide evidence of mistrust."

"I haven't lied to you yet."

"I have my doubts about that." Sasuke's eye narrowed. "What do you know about Naruto? How much do you know about him? Have you kept anything from us?"

"I've told you everything I know about him. He was on my team. He's a Jinchuuriki for Kyuubi. He was an orphan at birth and has no real talent for Ninjutsu because no one could really teach it to him. Not saying they really tried either, but that's not really…" Sasuke stopped and stared at Ozpin. His question was rather specific it seemed. Like he had learned something Sasuke hadn't about his former teammate. "What did he say to you?"

Ozpin's brow furrowed and a slight scowl formed on his lips. "You said he's an orphan, correct?" Nodding slowly, the gray haired headmaster stood up fully and walked around the desk. Glynda took a step back. "On Wednesday Naruto came to me with a desire to get his blade reforged. I approved of this, naturally, for reasons I didn't want to divulge at the time. It was what he said to me after I questioned his desire to inform Miss Belladonna about his past and his power. I will not deny that she is smart… possibly smarter than anyone on her team. But him telling her doesn't break our agreement. So long as Blake doesn't tell anyone else, you're secret is safe. But it was what he said to me that has me questioning how well you know him." Ozpin braced himself against the desk. "Father said lies have weight," he repeated it word for word. "How can an orphan know his father? Did Naruto have a stepfather, an adopted father, or a father figure?"

"He…" Sasuke's word fell short. Naruto never had a stepfather, which would imply his mother lived through the event somehow that killed her. But if she did, then where were they now? Sasuke was certain he'd never seen anyone pick Naruto up from the academy when they were little. So that couldn't be it. And Naruto didn't have an adopted father either. All the grownups hated him. Why adopt someone you'd hate? A father figure seemed more likely, but Naruto would never call them that. That simply wasn't his style. "He never had a father figure or anything of that nature."

"Then how did he know his father told him that?"

Grinding his teeth, the one eyed teen thought harder on the question. "I don't have an answer for that," he confessed finally.

Ozpin shut his eyes. "Aside from how he has been since he woke up, has Naruto acted differently from what he used to when you were back at your village? Is there any differences in how he acts then compared to now?"

"He's smarter and he's angry about being here, but other than that…" Again, Sasuke paused. It was hard for him to accept it, but it had begun to nag at the back of his mind since the day he woke up. "During our fight when Naruto woke up and the Grimm attacked, there was a moment when he spoke to me while fighting me. He told me, "Save my son," before we started fighting again. At the time I didn't know what he meant. I thought he was just saying random stuff. But now that I think on it, there was definitely something strange about that."

"Are you suggesting that somewhere inside Naruto there might be some form of his father?" Glynda asked slowly. There were people of great power out there in the world. People with power so terrible that it could drive a person mad. But what Sasuke was suggesting was beyond the realm of normal, even for them. "I'm a believer in many things, Sasuke, but that is simply pushing too many boundaries for my liking."

"We can summon the Shinigami, a Death God, and you're thinking that what I just said is not in the realm of possibilities? Even I find it hard to believe, but if there is one thing I've learned about Naruto, it's that he has a way of surprising you no matter what you choose to think about him. I thought he was weak, and in a fight for our lives, he turned out to be stronger. When I was afraid of dying to a large snake that would make these Grimm seem like babies, he ran full force into it because he wasn't afraid of it. Naruto has never doubted himself. He always stands at the front of everyone else. And it took me a while to see it, but I know why. Because he doesn't want to walk over the corpses of his friends. That's why he will always rush head first into danger. And when you think he's out, guess what, he's not. So if he has some piece of his father's soul inside him or saw him at some point in his life, then you know what, he's good at keep secrets after all."

Ozpin chuckled. "So you think Naruto isn't hiding something from you?"

"I would be surprised if he wasn't." Pressing forward, the former Uchiha gave the headmaster a glare as he repeated his earlier question. "What have you done?"

Ozpin cleared his throat and looked into his single eye. "I did what was needed." Sasuke's knuckles turned white. "Sasuke, understand that this is something Naruto asked to do in the very beginning. He said he would fight for us, and I gave him my word that I would help him go home. That is what I aim to do. But I will not let someone who wants to fight, who has the capacity to do so, linger and grow rusty. Naruto has proven to be a formidable opponent to both you and the Grimm. Were the shoe on the other foot, do you think he'd care if you were the one I sent out to combat the White Fang?"

"Naruto doesn't kill and he's not known for being able to sneak around too well." He bite his tongue after saying that. Naruto knew when to be sneaky. He just usually had to have people tell him what to do. But he could get the job done. Ozpin tapped on his scroll a few times and handed it over to Sasuke. "What is this?"

"The death count from the White Fang rally," he told him simply. "Twenty-seven are dead and the wounded count is still coming. Each one of them was a member of the White Fang." Image of people with slash markings and stab wounds appeared on the scroll. Sasuke flipped through them. "I asked him to keep team RWBY safe. I knew what they were doing. And as such, I wanted to give them the best protection I could think to provide for them. With all other teachers currently being, well, teachers, I couldn't just send them out to watch a couple of students try to play hero to tail them. Naruto was the only viable option with his disguising ability. If the shoe was on the other foot, Sasuke, I'd have sent you. Would have you agreed to do it?"

Setting it down slowly, Sasuke nodded. "I would have gone. I would have gone and there would be no survivors."

"It is with a heavy heart that I gave him those orders, but the White Fang are terrorists. We've tried things peacefully, but now they mean to bring down Vale. As a Huntsman, I can't allow this. I have a sworn duty to protect the people of Vale and I will do so with the tools I am provided. Given the chance, I would use him again." Sasuke pulled out his own scroll and checked the heart monitor on it. It was faster than normal. Perhaps he was still fighting? He wanted to call him, but stopped himself. That would be a distraction. "Sasuke, you have to let him go. He's not training to be a Huntsman like you. He's retaining his ninja way. I gave him the chance to join and he refused because he felt like it would be betrayal to what he truly is."

"A living weapon." The three turned. Naruto was pressed against the wall. He looked out of breath. "I heard enough, so you know. And yes, my father is inside me. So is my mother. It has to do with the seal on me. Something about them planting a piece of their chakra with an imprint on it. It gave them the ability to speak to me. They're still there." Naruto slid down the wall, leaving a trail of red liquid as he did. Glynda was the first one to him. "Hey, why is the room so blurry?" He fell over to his side, catching himself before he hit the ground. Glynda propped him upright. Her hand was soaked in blood. "I think I got shot about… seven… maybe ten times. Is that bad?"

"Yes! Very!" Glynda placed him down on the floor while Ozpin called the nurse to bring up some medical supplies. Sasuke pulled a kunai out and cut away his shirt. The bullet holes were slowly closing, giving them an idea on where he was shot at and if the bullet had gone through him entirely. "He needs a blood transfusion and we need to get him to surgery right now."

"We can perform it right here," Sasuke told her.

"He needs _proper_ medical treatment!"

"You wanted to use him for some secret operation! How are you going to explain a thirteen year old boy being shot nearly a dozen times to anyone?" Glynda looked to Ozpin for support on the subject. He was too busy calling someone to take point in their argument. Glynda took the knife from Sasuke and cut into Naruto's right arm. The young man didn't even scream. She gave him credit for that. "I can see the bullet. It's lodged in the bone. I can get it out," she explained. Her fingers dug inside his flesh and pulled out a small metal object no bigger than her pinky nail. "He's going to need actual medical attention, Sasuke. We won't be able to cover this up."

Ozpin put his scroll away while saying, "James is bringing a transport over with a medical team. He's going to keep this discrete." Naruto groaned as Glynda began pressing down on the wound with the remains of his shirt. "Sasuke, we'll discuss this later." The elevator opened and a pair of men walked in with a stretcher. They worked fast to get the young blond on it and strap him down. After a few quick checks to make sure he was securely strapped in they moved him out. Ozpin, Glynda, and Sasuke followed after them. "This is going to be a serious surgery, Sasuke. We'll notify you if anything changes. You have my word on this."

"Your word is not good enough right now."

"Then I'm sorry, but you're still going to have to wait. Not even I will be allowed in the surgery room." With that, Sasuke was left behind as the medical teams took Naruto away with Glynda and Ozpin along for the ride.

(-)

"Why are there so many cops here?" Ruby asked in a whisper.

Blake shook her head at her leaders' question. The sight of the destroyed warehouse where the Faunus had come to join the White Fang was easily spotted. Metal was wrenched into odd angles. Blood coated the floor like fresh paint. Men and women worked the area with bags while medical personal hauled off full bodies that were either dead or alive. Cops and Atlas Military personal moved weapons and other various crates out and into large trucks for transportation. Whatever evidence was left inside the warehouse that Blake hoped to gain was now gone.

"I can think of a few reasons," Yang whispered. Weiss lowered her scroll in front of them. Yang snatched it up. Blake crouched beside her. There was a small commercial to get through before the news come on. It showed the warehouse they were at and a battle ragging on. "Someone must have followed you, Blake."

"Maybe it was the rest of my team," Sun theorized. He grimaced when a body flew out of the window from the news footage. "Of course I don't think they'd be that cruel."

"Never knew them to be that cruel either if it was them. We can ask them later." Neptune told them. The girls got to their feet as the footage ended. "I hate to say it, but someone knew they were going to be here. This is too setup for anything other than an inside job."

"You think the White Fang had a traitor in their midst?" Weiss questioned. Neptune nodded. Sun rubbed in his chin in thought. "Well then I want to meet this traitor if he's still alive. I'm sure he has some information on them if he's been with them for a while. But why do this now? He put innocent lives at risk. And that was before Torchwick jumped in a robot."

"Who knows," Yang confessed tiredly. "We need to get back to Beacon before they get any crazy ideas." Blake looked at the carnage before departing with them. She could get her answers later on. She had more options to figure out what they were planning. "So why'd you abandon us in the fighting, Sun, Neptune?"

Both boys offered sheepish looks before Sun said, "I knew you girls had it. Besides, I have low stamina. Using my Semblance really takes it out of me." Neptune gave him a curious glance and received an elbow to motivate him to lie. "What's your excuse, Neptune?"

"We got lost trying to reach you ladies," he answered plainly. Sun shrugged. Not really a lie, but one that would make him seem less cool. He couldn't just say that they had it? "I'm hungry. Let's get back to Beacon and get something to eat. I don't really like going to sleep on an empty stomach."

Their stomachs rumbled collectively. Weiss looked dignified about it and marched past the boys and grabbed a cab for them. "I'm not paying for you slackers," she told them hotly. "You could still have come to make sure we were okay." Ruby shut the door, offering an apologetic look towards the two. Yang patted Neptune on the shoulder and motioned to her bike. He shrugged and jumped on with her. Sun looked around and sighed. "Better hopto it, Sunny-boy!" Weiss joked halfheartedly as the cab pulled away.

(-)

James looked over the sleeping Naruto with a scowl on his face. Ozpin sipped on his coffee before tilting his head to the side and saying, "I guess he wore red so no one would know when he was hurt. Cover up the blood," before going back to his drink.

"How can you be so careless right now? You just put that young boy in through hell! Ozpin, do you know what you just did?" James hissed at him.

"I did what was necessary. Whether you like it or not, there was no one else I had available that could do this. Who would you have me contact that is at my academy that could do this? Qrow? He doesn't work at this school and he's out on a long term mission for us. Raven? She's missing, presumed dead, and even then, I find it very hard to trust someone that doesn't report in right now. Glynda would be too easily recognized and her specialty is not espionage, and neither is it Oobleck's or Port's. I couldn't turn to you, because you'd send your soldiers to ransack the place. This only got bad because of Paladin that they had. If they didn't have that, things would be different."

"But he's only thirteen!" James wanted to punch him. Sure, he had students that were young, probably a little older than Naruto, but they were first year students, not trained military soldiers capable of stopping Grimm and terrorists in their tracks. This was not what they were just yet.

"I'm fully aware of how old he is, James, but we both know that his power far surpasses that of most of the people I _could_ have used. If they were here, I would have sent _them_ , not him. I wanted to ensure that nothing bad would happen, and yet despite my best precautions on the matter, people still ended up hurt because of the weapons they had access to. We can't turn a blind eye to the White Fang anymore. I have tried to do this peacefully, but now that they threaten the Kingdom with war and genocide, I'm not going to hold back on them. I will use whatever power I have to stop them. Even if it means sending someone who wants to fight to their death. Naruto is a soldier, a ninja, and he wants to be used. You can't say that you don't have students who want to be used for something more than what they are. That's why they train to become Huntsman and Huntresses."

James held his ground. Ozpin looked through the window to where Naruto slept. They pulled eight rounds from him. He was going to be out for maybe a day. The nurse in charge didn't ask questions. James didn't even explain what had happened or why the boy was brought aboard. Ozpin got the idea that James was brainwashing his students for this war that they fought in the name of peace. He wasn't wrong to want to be prepared, but history never looked kindly to those that prepared for war. They showed their hands and seldom won.

Ozpin turned on his heels and walked for the hanger. "Let me know when he wakes up. I have questions for him that he has to answer for me. It'll make things easier on both of us if you just promise me to do that." James gave a quick nod. "For what it's worth, James, he's not just a kid. He's something special."

 _Yeah… I kind of get that,_ he thought. Naruto grunted and his heart monitor pulsed irregularly for a moment. James watched as a single tear slid down his face. _He's crying? Is he crying for the people he killed or for something else?_

(-)

Sasuke entered his dorm and saw Persia sitting at her bed filing her nails. Jasper was gone and he could hear Emert singing in the shower. "You staying the night, finally?" Sasuke flexed his arm and ice formed over it in a thick black. He shattered it and it evaporated before it reached the carpet. She glanced over at his bed and went back to filing her nails. "Good," she said simply. "Now you can shut Emert up when he starts singing in his sleep. It's getting annoying."

Sasuke laughed and sat down on his bed. "Thank you, Persia." Her eyes darkened and for a moment he could see confusion in them before it was replaced with her cold natural look. "Why does your father think women are nothing but baby makers?"

"Grandpa is the same. He believes his father can do no evil, so he believes he is right. Women are worthless people designed only for the process of making babies and house hold chores. That's how Grandpa is, that's how all the males are on my dads' side of the family. So I despise all men." She looked at her nails and then to him. "I don't despise you. You see me as something other than a worthless female. Perhaps one day I will see you in a better light than what I already do. But for now, don't expect me to come pull you from your tree again if you get like this. I'll just shoot you with an arrow and hope you survive."

"Fair enough. Come set me straight if I screw up. I think that's fair."

"I said I'll shoot you. I didn't say I'll straighten you out." She returned to filing her nails and then laid down. "Father was right about one thing," she confessed bitterly, "I'm not a woman. I'm just a _thing_ designed for sick pleasure." Sasuke looked away and waited for Emert to come out of the shower. "What sort of father issues did you have? I can see it in your eye. Someone who longed for the attention of another and never received it. So what sort of problems do you have?"

"There isn't enough time in the world for me to tell you about my problems." The female Faunus blinked slowly and then looked at the ceiling. "My problems stem from my brother, nothing else. My father might have loved me, I don't know. But he praised me once and that was all I needed. I believe that parents who say the other praise them are liars now. My mother said my dad praised me when I was little. I never believed her fully 'till I heard it from him. As wrong as that is, that's probably the start of my problems."

"So we both have daddy issues." She rolled over. "Go take a shower. You smell like pine trees. It's disgusting."

A/N

Kind of a short chapter, I know. Sorry about that. So just to be clear on something because this seems to be going over some peoples' head, Naruto is not exactly in the right state of mind. Sure, we've seen him bounce back from Sarutobi's death and Jiraiya's death, but really, he's thirteen, not fifteen like how when Jiraiya died, and even then, he had someone there that he knew could cheer him up and help him get over it. This isn't a death in his life that he can cry on some shoulder and move on with. This is him learning the horrible truth of what a Jinchuuriki is, what they are, and what they're used for. Minato and Kushina can't come out and explain that the reason they didn't come out sooner was because they needed chakra to help him/seal the Kyuubi later on in his life. They can't let Kyuubi know why they're even in there to begin with. That would ruin the only chance they have of stopping him should the seal break.

So because of that, Naruto can't just accept everything that has been done to him. He sees this as sort of a betrayal from his father since his mother didn't want this life for him. Sure, Minato has explained everything to him about the fight he had with The Masked Man, the Kyuubi attack, and how he split the Kyuubi's power in half, along with how Kumo wanted Kushina for her Uzumaki blood, the same blood that flows through Naruto. Naruto might not have the natural suppression ability that Kushina has, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist in some fashion in him.

I just wanted to say that. Because I try to look at things realistically, and from my perspective, this is sort of how a thirteen year old with god-like powers, might act. Naruto became a little crazy, listened to the Kyuubi over his parents, and decided to butcher his attackers because he wanted to show them that he was a living weapon of war. That's just it. That was how I wanted things to go with him.


	20. The Darkness Within

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

This story is entirely fan-made and fictional. Any acts that you might find offensive, disguising, inhuman, wrong or just don't like, we are not liable for. You are reading this story of your own free will and not being forced, if you don't like something we are not forcing you to stay and read it. Please leave the page and re-frame from reading the chapter and or story. All Copyrighted Characters belong to their respect owners. We don't claim anything that is not our own creation and are merely using them for fan made material.

We accept constructive criticize and help but being rude and disrespectful will not be tolerated. This is done for the fun of writing not to make every little person happy, while making people happy with are stories is great we are not here for Money, Fame or Fortune this is done for the simply joy of writing.

Chapter 19

"You lost to a child?"

Edward cringed as Adam stalked around him and watched the news lady continued to talk about the death count and its ever growing rise. The news was never kind to them about anything and while pleasing to watch, this one was hardly even worth watching or remembering. Adam was beyond furious about his lost. He was livid. And the fact that they now knew where Blake was didn't make things any better either. Adam loved her. Treated her like a friend and wanted to be with her till the end of days as they attained the freedom they so richly deserved.

"He was hardly a child," Edward confessed tiredly. His wound was a painful reminder of what he fought and survived against.

"And what makes you think that?" Adam's sword shook as his hand twitched with rage.

"The way he talked." Edward sat up with a grunt of pain. His wound was deep. He'd be out of commission for a few days at the very least. Adam gave him a pleading look to continue. Edward took a deep breath as the pain coursed through him. "He talked like someone that had seen war. And the way he fought was to end us. He knew how to fight too. He used a sword and when it broke, he wasn't afraid to grab our weapons and use them against us. He didn't care that we shot him or that we stabbed him. But his healing factor was what surprised me the most. It was like nothing we did matter to him. He just kept coming back from it as though we never hit him."

Adam stopped pacing and faced his comrade slowly. "Did he have any odd features?"

"Not that I could see. But he did have one red eye that was slitted and another eye that was blue. But the blue eye turned red and suddenly it was like he was on fire or something."

Sitting down, Adam turned to a computer and typed away on it. After a long moment of silence he turned it around and showed Edward. "Did it look something like this?"

Edward grimaced as he leaned forward and took in the image of a small boy, probably a young teenager, with blond hair, whisker markings on his cheeks, and a red aura that took the form of a dog of some sort. The aura-like flames possessed a long tail and two large ears. The entire made him look bigger than what he was in both size and height. Video footage played of the strange young teen destroyed Grimm like they were made of paper. Nothing survived his passing unless he allowed it.

"Somewhat," he replied slowly. "But this was like a living flame. It didn't take form." He placed both hands on the table and leaned over the monitor. Adam stepped towards the opening of their tent and watched as the sun began to set. "Whoever this kid is, he's gotta be someone related to the person I fought."

"He's not a student at Beacon, but he does work for them." Adam held his composure as he continued to watch the sun rise. "He is close to Blake though. Our spies have noticed that much."

"So we use him to get to her or to him?"

"We could… But I'd rather get to her through him." Adam calmly walked back over to the monitor and shut it down. "She will soon know that I will destroy everything she holds dear before I end her."

(-)

Sasuke scratched his chin as he watched a typical morning to his little dorm room with his team. Emert was still sleeping, Persia was already finished getting dressed for the day, and Jasper was jumping in the shower with a mighty yawn. Being that it was Sunday and that they had no school, their typical Sundays were mostly consists of sleeping, training, or studying. Emert would sleep until about eleven when his hunger would get the better of him and he'd wake up. After eating he'd join Jasper and Sasuke in the gym to further his combat training. And while all of this was going on, Persia would remain dutiful to her studies and continue her advancement in the study of Security.

But before any of that could happen they had to go through a usual morning routine.

"Emert!" Persia yelled at her fellow Faunus. He shot straight up with a tired expression and yawned loudly. His ears wiggled to each noise that they made as the water was turned on by Jasper for his shower. "What is the one thing I tell you ever day?"

"…Wake up…" he answered with a yawn.

"The other thing!"

"For the love of god, stop sleeping naked."

"And what do you keep doing?"

"I sleep naked. I slept naked on the first day here. I can't help it. I hardly ever get cold. If I could, I'd go to class naked. Do you know why? My body is naturally very hot." He rolled out of bed and stood in all his naked glory. Sasuke chuckled at the sight and for a brief moment figured that might be how Naruto wakes up every morning. "I'm sorry that I'm not naturally cold like you and Sasuke."

Growling at the jab, Persia snarled and slapped him. "Look," she screeched, "I don't care about how hot you get when you sleep or when you wear clothes! You can wear clothes that breathe just fine. And don't talk about cold nature bodies like it doesn't have a downside to it!" Grabbing her jacket, she stormed out, slamming the door in the process.

Emert sighed and looked to his leader. Sasuke had nothing to say on the matter. Cracking his neck, the teleporting Faunus grumbled, "Not my fault she's so uptight about things," as he dropped back down into bed, face first and covering only his legs under the thin sheets. "Am I in the wrong here?" he asked finally.

"If it's part of your physiology, no. But I am curious on why that is."

Pulling the sheet over his privates, Emert sat up and stretched. "You know how a lot of dogs don't have the ability to sweat? Well my body is sort of similar. I have to reach a certain temperature before that even really happens. It's nothing too serious, but it is annoying. It's better than my moms' love of going to garage sales and buying anything she deems cute." Sasuke arched a thin brow at that and Emert laughed. "I'm not joking. You know how dogs have that one toy that they love? Well my mom is the same. She loves her little rubber ducks. Has an entire room dedicated to them…"

"Is it your guest room?" Sasuke joked.

"No… It's the basement. She won't let my dad have his Man Cave since she needs a spot for her rubber ducks. And he won't let her add on to the house… so… yeah."

"The more you talk about your family, the more dysfunctional they sound."

Emert laughed and fell backwards onto his bed. "That about sums up everyone's family, Sasuke… I bet money that Ruby's family is just as dysfunctional."

"Given how Yang and Ruby turned out…" Sasuke let it hang there and snickered as Jasper walked out with a towel wrapped around his waist. "So what's the game plan for today?"

"I'm going to the gym to work out," Jasper told him plainly. Glancing at their Faunus teammate, Jasper inclined his head and asked, "What are your plans for the day… You know… Aside from sleeping until noon."

"I'm sleeping 'till noon, masturbating in the shower so Persia doesn't get angry with me, and _then_ hitting the gym. This waking up early crap for school blows big time."

"Should have taken online courses for a regular school with a regular job then," Jasper told him with an air of indifference.

"That's what my girl keeps telling me but she knows I'm not going to." He looked outside and yawned again. "What time is it?"

"Seven in the morning," Sasuke answered with a yawn of his own. Those little things were contagious.

"Really?! She woke me up knowing full well what time it is?" He collapsed back onto the bed. "I'm going back to bed."

Sasuke shook his head as he marched towards the bathroom to get ready for the day. "I'll see you at the gym soon, Jasper." Giving a nod, the teen marched out, running into Yang and Pyrrha along the way.

(-)

Jasper took a deep breath as he lifted the bar up and put it back on the holder so that he could rest his tired arms. A chuckling Yang could only look at the some eight pounds of weights thrown on both sides of the bar before slapping her workout buddy on the shoulder and looking around the room to the others doing the same thing.

"Trying to impress a lady?" Yang asked jokingly.

"Yeah! You! You impressed?" He laughed. She chuckled right along with him with a shake of her head.

The first day he came to the gym he found her as well. She was doing her reps a hundred pound weight. She didn't look it, but Yang was incredible strong. If she looked as strong as she was, she would be rather muscular, something she didn't quiet look. Of course the same could also be said for Nora, but Nora was odd and most likely just not bound to the same physic as most normal people. But because Jasper had seen her working out here and she caught him doing the same, over the weekend they would come here and spar and lift weights as a form of training.

Jasper would also be lying if he didn't find her alluring in a sports bra, some shorts, and sweat glistening off her skin. He doubted Yang would say the same for him. He was covered in scars, muscular like some roided out jock, and was more noteworthy of not taking people serious that he beat already. Yang was still a little miffed about their first confrontation and begged for rematches where he took it seriously. The biggest mystery she wanted on him was what his Semblance was. He said he'd never had a need for it in any of the matches he had, meaning he was powerful without it.

"Not really," she teased back. The buxom blond grabbed a water bottle and chugged the contents. She gasped for air as she quenched her thirst and looked around the gym for a moment. Pyrrha was working helping Jaune with some stretches while an enthused Nora was already lifting weights nearly twice as much as she weighed as though they weighed far less. Ren was going through various karats in preparation for a small sparring contest with someone else in a moment. "Don't you have a girl back home or something?"

"I can look and not touch." Yang laughed loudly to that and slapped him on the back. "Don't you have a girl back home, too?" Yang stopped laughing slowly and gave him a sideways glance. "I was just curious. You strike me as someone who plays for both teams."

"What if I do?"

"Then that makes you hot to any sane guy. But as you said, I have a girl back home. So I'm not sane."

"No… You're just loyal." Yang motioned for him to get up. He did so and she laid down under the bar. "So what's she like? You never really talk about her."

Grabbing the bar and helping her with it, he paused and considered what she'd just asked before saying, "Radiant," as though he were looking at her. Yang could see that he was looking elsewhere and not somewhere here in the gym. There was a twinkle in his eye that told her the person he was seeing now was just in his minds' eye. "She's was warm to the touch and every night I spent with her was amazing. Everything she did was detailed to perfection from the way she spoke to the way she smiled. There's no way to describe her other than to say that she is a goddess to me."

"You make her sound like she's the ideal woman and that no one else could compare."

"To me, she is more beautiful than you, funnier than Ruby, more alluring than Blake, and has a voice greater than Weiss. She is better than every woman, no matter their money, power, or looks. She will always be greater than them." Yang smiled despite herself and began pushing the bar up and down. "But she does have her flaws," he said with a smile. "When we met she was far too kind to someone like me. And even now, she sees only the good in people, never once looking at the bad they have in them. I'm not saying that's a terrible thing, but she believes that all people are good, no matter how bad they are. She would let herself get shot through the heart trying to tell that to a bloodthirsty killer."

"And you fault her for that?"

Jasper became quiet. His eyes darkened and something inside Yang's mind screamed for her to run. For in that moment she could see evil in Jasper and it scared her. His eyes were cold and lifeless. His entire body shuddered as if something was dragged out of him and thrown back in. It passed in the blink of an eye. No one not looking hard enough would have seen it. But she could see it. A terror within him greater than perhaps even the terrible creatures of Grimm.

"No," he said suddenly, "I don't fault her." He blinked and Yang didn't see the look in his eyes any more. Noticing her confused stare, he smiled at her as if trying to cover something up. "You okay? That bar is heavy you know?"

Shaking herself from the trance she was in, she finished her reps and placed the bar back on the rack. "I was just thinking about something," she lied casually. Jasper didn't seem to notice her jitter or lie and took her spot to start lifting again. Yang remained focused on what she saw for several minutes before noticing that he was looking away again and more towards something else. "So where is she now?"

Finishing his reps, he huffed as he sat up and rubbed his shoulder. "She lives with her father. She's going to school to become a doctor. She's studying with her brother right now. He's a doctor."

Nodding like she was truly listening to him, she jumped when the young fighter got to his feet and cracked his back. "So squats?" she asked evenly.

"How about a mock fight? No semblances. Just pure skill?" Curious to his motives, she agreed and looked around the room. Sasuke showed up with Emert and Weiss. Persia walked in behind them wearing a training bra and black leggings. Ren jumped to his feet at her presence and bowed respectively towards her. She did the same and took a stance. Looking in their direction, Jasper grinned. "Persia! Ren!" he waved them over. "How about a three on three?"

"What's the loser gotta do?" A mischievous twinkle formed in Yang's eye.

Persia glanced around and sighed as she said, "I'm not fighting Jasper. I'll fight Emert, but I'm not fighting you, you brute."

Jasper shrugged and looked around. Sasuke was doing a mock match against Pyrrha while Jaune watched from the sidelines. "How about a different match? Sasuke, Pyrrha, Weiss, wanna have a sparring match?"

Walking over, Pyrrha was the first to voice an opinion on the matter. "I'm okay with it, but I'd like to try something if we're doing this, if that's okay?" Yang didn't care. "How about we each take a different member from our teams and have a three on three match. I'll take Yang and Persia, and you can take whomever else."

"I'm down for that," Sasuke told her. "But a ground rule on this. No semblance use. If you use it, you lose. And no weapons either. So it's just pure skill with hand-to-hand combat."

"I like the sound of that!" Yang pumped her fists together. "Hey, Jaune, ready to see three real women in action?"

Jaune looked sheepishly between all the women present and smartly backed off before he could make a fool of himself.

"Ren, you wanna come with me on this?" Sasuke asked. Red nodded and walked over to the former Uchiha as he looked at the remaining people before noticing that his options were very limited. "Weiss, you wanna get in on this?"

Weiss licked her lips as she looked at the three fighters that she'd be squaring off against if she agreed. Pyrrha would curve stomp her just the same as Yang would. Weaponless and not able to use a Semblance wound hinder her to the point of uselessness. But Persia was just as tall as she was, and just a thin. She relied heavily on her weapon as well. Everytime she fought in the matches, she never once let go of her weapons, even when Pyrrha might have grabbed them with her Semblance or when Cardin would hook them on his weapon and try to rip them from her.

"I'll do it," she finally proclaimed. "None of you better slack off, either."

Sasuke raised his hands as a show of innocents as he walked out onto the training mat with Ren. The others followed. Nora became the ref and clarified the rules one more time as all six teens did a few stretches to get ready for the match. When the match was called, Sasuke and Ren were on Yang and Pyrrha in a burst of speed and forced them to hastily defend themselves from their onslaught of moves.

Weiss rushed Persia with a fist already flying. Persia sidestepped her and kneed her in the gut for her troubles. Doubling over and coughing, Weiss nearly hit the floor before her hair was grabbed by the female Faunus and she was thrown backwards onto the mat. Not detoured in the slightest, she rolled to her feet and began fighting anew. Persia sidestepped, countered, or simply stopped each of her attacks with the greatest of ease. It was then that Weiss realized she had made a horrible miscalculation. Persia could fight without her weapons, a skill she had never once shown.

The female Faunus slowly walked towards the downed Heiress and lifted her to her feet before throwing her out of the arena. Nora called it and she turned on Ren.

Sasuke wished that he had Yang or even Blake on his side instead of Weiss. Not to berate her, but he knew she was weak without her abilities or weapon. He'd seen Ruby fight without her weapon, and in his mind, Ruby was a better fighter. She knew what to do, she just lacked the strength to do it. Still, with Ren on his team, he knew that they had a fighting chance at winning. Ren had beaten Persia several times and had fought against Yang and ended up on top a few times. But Yang and Persia working together might be too much for him, even if the usage of Semblances weren't allowed.

Pyrrha was feeling the effects of this as well. He could see that in her fighting style. Pyrrha was still a threat without a weapon, a testament to her skill and rank as a number one tournament champion for her league. But take away her semblance and her weapon and her skill would fall, not enough that it would stop her from achieving victory, but enough to give anyone, even Yang, a fighting chance against her.

Sasuke, however cruel it was, wasn't limited to their restrictions. His Sharingan wasn't a Semblance, and neither was his speed, his strength. Sasuke could win against them if he pushed himself, drove himself beyond the point where he fighting like a normal huntsman in training. He could stomp them all without the full usage of Chakra.

His Sharingan activated and he could Pyrrha like a book.

A small piece of his mind mocked him, called him a cheater for using it, but he ignored that part of him in favor for his actions. They couldn't stop him and they never knew what his Sharingan could do.

He blocked a shot from her as she lashed out with her leg. He gripped it tightly and with all his might flung her sideways, forcing her up against the edge of the impromptu arena. Nora was about to call her out when Pyrrha skidded to a stop and rolled back to her feet continue her battle with him. Sasuke stopped her at every turn. He turned his Sharingan off and still he remained ahead of her. She could do nothing against his onslaught when he turned on her and before long she was forced back with a hard punch to her gut, a kick to the side of her head, an elbow to her ribs, and a resounding head butt to her temple sent her crumbling to the ground.

Ren flew over Sasuke's head and he knew that Persia and Yang had beaten him.

The former Uchiha whipped around to strike at Yang, catching her in the face. She stumbled back a bit and Persia leaped over her, kicking him square in the chest. Pyrrha sprang forward and got him several times in the ribs. Sasuke grimaced and caught both Yang and Pyrrha's punches before they could connect. With a grunt of effort, he pulled them closer and slammed them into each other. The effect was instant on them as they were both rattled by the blow. Pyrrha recovered first and used her other hand to grab his wrist and shove him forward into an on waiting kick from his Faunus teammate that caught him in the chin.

The former Uchiha grimaced as he was tossed around by the three girls. Yang sucker punched Sasuke in the side of his face, which spun him towards Persia's elbow that hit him hard in the gut before she spun around and lashed out with her leg, striking him hard in the chin that knocked him back into Pyrrha where she grabbed his shoulders and threw him over herself, grabbed him after punching him in the back of the head, and sent him forward into Yang and Persia's high kick that sent him sprawling backwards and into a hard backhand from Pyrrha that sealed the deal as he fell flat on his ass and looked at the ceiling.

Nora rushed to his side in preparation to call the fight when Sasuke suddenly sprang back to his feet and cracked his neck. "My turn," he told them in a low voice. Pyrrha braced herself as her instincts took over. Sasuke punched her in the gut through her hasty guard and sent her sprawling backwards into a startled Yang as the former Uchiha punched around Pyrrha's head to clock the buxom blond hard in the side of the face. Pyrrha in hand, the two girls fell to the side and rolled awkwardly as Persia jumped forward to attack him only to be sent to the ground hard from a powerful axe kick to her collar bone.

"How is he doing that?" Jaune asked in a whisper.

Jasper leaned forward and stared intently at his leader as he turned on the three girls and fought them to a complete standstill. "He's just that good," Jasper finally told him. Jaune looked to Pyrrha and watched as Sasuke lifted her up by her hair and tossed her to the side.

Yang screamed at him as she started throwing punches again. Sasuke ducked under them as she sped up in an attempt to hit him. Her attacks kept getting closer and closer to hitting him. She skimmed his hair, then his ear, and finally, as if receiving a boost of power from the heavens above, she clocked him hard in the chest. Sasuke stumbled back as Persia slid beside him and took his legs out from under him. He hit the ground and then hit again when he tried to get up as Pyrrha jumped on his back and thrust him back to the mat.

Grunting, Sasuke punched the mat and forced himself up, throwing the redhead off him in the process. Pyrrha flipped and landed on her feet. A determined look shined in her eyes. Sasuke's Sharingan sprang to life and a chuckle escaped him. The three girls rushed him and he blocked each strike from them at the same time. He blocked Yang and Pyrrha with his arms and Persia with his leg. Stunned, they hastily backed off.

Turning, he rushed Yang and got in close with a spin kick. She backed up, dodging the attack. Sasuke lurched forward, grabbed her training bra, brought her closer to himself and kneed her in the chest to send her skidding backwards. He kept on her and threw a punch at her face. She sidestepped it and returned the favor, knocking him down. He hit the ground, propped himself on his shoulders, spun with a kick and knocked her in the side of the head. He punched the ground to push off, dodging Persia as she slid down to kick him in the face. He reached out, grabbed her head, and tossed her at the ground. She rolled, threw her legs up, caught his face, pushed off, and sent him up into the air where Pyrrha kicked him back to the ground.

Sasuke flipped before he could hit and landed on his feet. Pyrrha landed down on him and sent him back to the ground on his back. The tournament champion reeled back with a punch but before she could throw it, Sasuke jerked up and got her across the face to send her skidding to the side. Persia and Yang jumped over her and took over.

Sharingan spinning, Sasuke zipped through them and dropped them both. Persia wasn't easy to put down and she was on her feet faster than Yang, who was only a fraction of a second behind her. Sasuke grimaced and fought them some more. Yang landed several good blows on him but eventually she was thrown to the ground and kicked out of the arena where Nora called her out.

Gasping for air, Persia lunched herself at him and managed to grab him. Sasuke twisted and saw only red knuckles as Pyrrha's fist flew for his Sharingan eye. Persia screamed and released Sasuke as he cursed.

A crackling noise sound and Nora screamed that Sasuke had lost.

Persia hastily backed away as the former Uchiha stared at Pyrrha through a sheet of ice that had formed between them. Taking a step back, the ice cracked so more and fell to the ground in pieces. Sasuke stared at the ice and then to Pyrrha. She seemed just as shocked but somehow looked pleased by it.

"Looks like you broke your rule, Sasuke," Yang said with a coughing laugh. She looked as Weiss and grinned. "So is that why you wanted Weiss on your team? I guess a good Ice King would need his Ice Queen!"

Weiss stomped her foot and began berating her teammate for the joke while Sasuke collapsed on his butt and looked at the ice. "Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked. She grabbed a shard of the ice and studied it. "Did you mean to do it?" Her knuckles hurt a lot now. The ice was harder than normal. Hard enough to be considered stone. She was surprised she didn't smash through it with as hard as she hit it. It did crack, but it didn't break.

Looking at the shard for a moment, he shook his head before saying, "No. I didn't even think on it. It just sort of appeared when you tried to hit me." Thinking more on it, he glanced at Persia as she backed away from the ice with pain drawn across her face. "Are you okay?"

"NO!" she cried as she dropped to her knees. She looked at her hands and cried. "It hurts!"

Sasuke was beside her in a flash. She shoved him away as she got to her feet. She took two steps then collapsed into a fit of choking coughs. Sasuke went to her side as her loud cries of pain turned to soft whimpers. Her turned her over and she was shivering. Her skin where she had held him in the hold had turned blue. Jasper pulled Sasuke back and slowly lifted her up. "She's need to get back to our room. We can warm her up there." The teens followed him as he lead them to their dorm room. There, Jasper pulled her sheets back and stuck her under them as she continued to shiver. A worried Yang was trying to be reasonable and call for a doctor. "There's no point in calling a doctor. She's going to be fine as long as we can warm her up."

"We know we need to warm her up!" Yang told him angrily.

"Yes but she has the stuff her to keep her warm. It's always been important she stays warm since she's a lizard Faunus."

"But why does she need to stay… warm…" Jaune stopped talking and looked at her. "She's cold blooded?"

"Yes," Jasper said quietly. Sasuke grimaced. "I learned when you first showed signs of your Semblance. The room was cold and she hugged her blanks tightly. She was okay, but the cold was still eating at her. She has a heat blanket underneath her sheets designed for Faunus with her problems. That's why she takes really hot showers and doesn't like eating cold food all the time. She doesn't know that I know this." Standing up, he put his hands in his pockets and said, "She'll be okay. Just let her rest for a bit." Jasper motioned towards the door and they exited. "She'll be fine. If there are any changes, I'll let you all know."

Sasuke looked at her and then walked away with his eye closed.

Yang started walking for him. "Don't worry about him," Weiss told her. Yang stopped and looked at her white haired teammate funny. "He has the power of ice. Ice would be her natural enemy. He didn't know that his Semblance was making the room cold. Without that heat blanket, she'd be dead. He just realized that." Rubbing her bruised side she snorted and added, "If you ever make another comment about like that about us, I will freeze your hair and break it off," before marching back to their dorm to take a shower and freshen up for the remainder of the day.

(-)

"You're falling apart, son. You need to stop, think, listen, and then everything will be better."

Naruto gasped for air as he felt his entire being be ripped from his body and thrown back in. It hurt a lot more than he ever thought it would, but no one had ever said the truth would be painless. Minato stood back and waited for Kushina to pull him back from the darkness as Kyuubi continued to whisper words of destruction in ear to him. The struggle was real with Naruto as his very soul waved between chaos and order. Kushina held their son tightly and used her chakra to sooth his unstable chakra.

"You can do this son," Kushina whispered in his ear. "You can fight this. Just listen to my voice. Feel my love for you."

Naruto threw his head back as red chakra ripped at his body. Kushina held on tightly as it threatened to rip him out of the clear world they had dragged him to once his mind had calmed enough for them to grab him. Kyuubi's influence reached even here. There was no telling just how far down the Kyuubi could reach within Naruto's mind. The seal prevented their minds from melding. Whatever Naruto knew, Kyuubi could learn if he so desired. A Yamanaka would have be a real help here in assuring that the Kyuubi couldn't reach this place, but now they had no other choice but to explain things.

"It… hurts…"

"I know! Just listen to my voice. Focus only on that. We can stop this, but you have to listen to us." Kushina took a deep breath and forced more chakra into her son. Naruto gasped for air as the red chakra began to fight back and reach inside him. Minato got closer and placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. He screamed and the red chakra shot upwards and arched towards him. The older blond slipped out of its reach and took his spot again a few feet away. Kushina grimaced and whispered, "I love you," into his ear. The chakra slacked and began to recede again.

"What happened wasn't our fault. I did what I thought was right, and I know now that that was wrong." Minato licked his lips. "What I did, I did to protect you. I have enemies, not here, but back home, I have enemies. I was the Hokage, Naruto. Hokages, people of power, have great enemies. And I fought in the war. I killed a lot of people. Those people had friends, family members, people respected them, maybe even loved them from afar. And I cut them down. I didn't want them to do the same to you, so I also put the Kyuubi in you for that. I didn't that to protect you."

" _ **Lies for the weak… Is this what you've become, Hokage?"**_ Naruto gripped his head and wanted to scream. The slain victims he created came rushing back to him. He wanted to vomit. _**"Do you really think you can save him from what you've done to him? What you've**_ **made** _ **him? You made this madness. Now answer for it by watching me tear your son apart!"**_

"You're right!" Minato shouted at him. "I created this madness! But when I saw you destroying the village, killing those people, I had no choice but to stop you. I had to wrestle control from that masked man and seal you away again for the balance of power between the Bijuu!"

" _ **FOR THE BALANCE OF POWER BETWEEN BIJUUS!"**_ Kyuubi's voice seethed with rage as it echoed around them. _**"What about what I wanted? What about my freedom?! You humans have done nothing but use my power like it's your own and for no other reason than to make the rest of the world think you are greatest nation!"**_

"We have our faults! But you were always causing destruction! That's why we seal you away. You are power without a master. You needed to be controlled!" Kyuubi screamed and thrashed in his cage in the other world of Naruto's mind. Naruto screamed in pain. Kushina held him tightly as claws began to form on him.

"Naruto, just listen to me!" Kushina cried to her son. She put her forehead against his. He continued to scream.

" _ **I will take him and turn him into the monster your village saw him as! He's already in my hand. Before long, he will be mine!"**_

Minato grabbed Naruto's hand and wrapped himself around both of them. The red chakra surged upwards and came down around them. "Naruto," he spoke quietly. "I know you're afraid. But being afraid is alright. I watched you grow. I was so happy when this happened. I can see you now, speak to you, give you the words of comfort that you have so desperately longed to hear. But you need fight this. We won't him take you away from us. So don't let him take us away from you again."

The red chakra began to seep away and return to Naruto. Kushina released more of her chakra into Naruto's body and suddenly he stopped screaming. He slumped forward in her arms and remained there for an eternity before he sniffed back some of his snot and dried his eyes.

"Son," Minato started quietly. Naruto punched him in the face. Kushina stood up with him and laughed as her husband held his nose like he broke it. "I guess I deserve that. Are you going to be okay?"

Naruto nodded slowly as he dried his eyes. "I'm a monster…"

"No you're not!" Kushina told him sternly. Naruto gave her a harsh look. She thought he looked at her as though she were insane. "All Jinchuuriki are not the same. You aren't a monster. That was the first time you ever killed. And you killed them because they were bad people. You were doing the right thing. If you fought them any other way, you would have died. You made a choice to kill them because you wanted to live."

"But I didn't have to kill them. I could have left, gone to protect Blake, and it would have been avoided."

"You don't know that." Minato told him. "Naruto, I've made terrible choices. Choices that got people killed that were my friends. I lived with that. I lived with the knowledge that I got them killed because I made a terrible choice. You made a choice, and it was the right one. It was either you or them. I'm happy you chose to kill them."

"But I didn't have to kill them."

"That's true… But what if you went to Blake and protected her and they turned around and killed other people because they were fleeing the scene?" Kushina put forth. Naruto looked away. "You care about her safety. If you ever need to question anything you do for her, then she isn't worth it. If you do it because you want to keep her safe, that's different. I know you've had bad luck with girls. Believe me, you're father had bad luck with them too." Minato snorted and whispered something that Naruto missed. Kushina heard him and laughed at him. "That's true," she admitted. "You did catch me."

"True," Minato admitted tiredly. "Naruto, you did nothing wrong. I know this world has different rules and regulations to this kind of stuff, but ultimately, you're still young. In this world; you did something no child should have to do and to them that's wrong. Maybe they're right. Maybe Sasuke has been right about the village. Maybe they make us fight because somewhere along the line we were told that all we could do was fight. So we fight. We take what we need to fight to make ourselves better and killing our enemies. But I didn't put the Kyuubi in you to make you better at killing people. I put him in you to protect you from my enemies."

"And it ruined my life."

"Yes! I know. And no amount of apologizing will ever make it right. But I'm going to do better by you. I'm going to help you become stronger if you'll allow me. We can teach you things, Naruto. We can make you better at protecting the people you care about." Kushina told him happily. Naruto looked between them and then to his hands. He could still see their blood on them. "We'll be a family. The kind that you wanted. The kind where I'm not dead and your father isn't some hero that's carved into a rock."

Naruto lowered his head and smiled. "I'd like that… Will you stay with me… forever?"

"Forever." Naruto slowly grabbed them into a hug and cried. Minato patted him on the back while Kushina kissed his forehead. "Son, you need to wake up though. They need answers to what happened. Answers that you have. If you need us, we'll be right here. Call on us, and we'll come running. We won't have to run far."

Nodding, the blond took a deep breath and willed himself back to reality. The numbness of drugs hit him hard and he felt lightheaded. A beeping sound echoed from beside him and he had trouble focusing on it. When his eyes finally managed to lock with it, he reached out to tap it like an alarm clock and fell short. He rolled to his side and started tapping it, his clumsy hands ripping through wires in the process. It blared to life and screamed a song of death. Not a minute later a group of nurses were in the room with a doctor. James stormed in a few minutes later with Ozpin behind him.

"Sorry I sleep for so long," Naruto said tiredly. The drugs were still in his system. "I'm good now."

Relived, Ozpin tapped his cane and smiled at him. "That's good to hear. Naruto, we need to talk."

"Yeah we do." He tore the needle and iv from his arm and swung his legs off the corner of the bed. Two nurses helped him stand. "Let me get dressed and get something to eat. We can talk after that."

(-)

"The death count is still coming in, but Adam isn't happy about all the Faunus members he lost during that rally."

Cinder shut her eyes and for a brief moment gave in to her desire to just rip the school apart, show the world that the Huntsmen of the world was just weak children clinging to desperate power. But her plans were already in motion. She couldn't stop now. Not when she was already in the middle of Phase two. If she stopped now all her work would be worthless. Time and patience was a thing of beauty and she had both on her side. Adam was not so easily mended. He lacked patience. She saw that in him and loved it about him. It made him so easy to control. Fear was a powerful thing, but sitting on ones' hand for too long made them idle. Idle hands were a terrible thing.

The deaths were sad and would certainly push more Faunus members to seek shelter in the White Fang with a proper spin on it. But it was how the attack was done that had her truly intrigued. In fact, this last month was really interesting. First there was the odd Grimm attack which happened during a terrorist attack on a hospital. The White Fang pleaded not guilty on the subject and Cinder believed them. Stealing cargo from Faunus workshops was one thing. But blowing up a hospital, one that treated both Humans and Faunus, was not their typical targets. And during the Grimm attack there was sighting of a boy covered in a red flame-like aura that made him immune to harm from Grimm, gave him super strength, speed, and recovery.

To the city he was a hero. But to those that saw him before he became the hero, they knew what he was. He attacked one of the other students, Sasuke, after he destroyed the hospital with an explosion of red power that surged from within him. Their fight took them over most of the docks before he was suddenly quieted and turned on the Grimm by unknown methods. Shortly after that, there were reports of him going rouge at Beacon, but Cinder found no evidence of foul play. But shortly after that another addition was made to the school in the form of an assistant, one Uzumaki Naruto.

Cinder was convinced that Ozpin was hiding something far more dangerous than even Amber, wherever she was. How could Ozpin have such a powerful individual on his side and not utilize him more frequently? Had he already done it? Did he turn him loose him on the White Fang at their rally? And if so: Why now of all times?

There was no hiding Ozpin's desire for peace. He believed talking would solve all problems. A younger version of herself might agree to such notion. But she was dead now, replaced with her current self. Her past self would remain buried and forgotten. Just like how the world had done so with the Four Maidens. She'd make them all remember. That was only part of her goal. Attaining their power, striking fear into the world, showing them that everything they hoped for was a lie, was just icing on the cake for her.

"Let him stew over it."

Cinder glanced upwards towards her two… allies? She was hesitant to even call them that. Pawns, knights, maybe they were bishops? Adam was a pawn. "You're just saying that cuz the guy beside him warned him when you were going to try something," the boy told her.

"The death count is a terrible thing," Cinder cur in before the female could spout anything off ay him. Emerald never liked Mercury; something that Cinder thought was amusing. Both had different backgrounds, dark or shady as they were, but it was like when two bad guys got together in a show and could only work partially well together. In combat, they were good. Out of combat, it was nothing but a game of annoying the other as fast as possible. Tapping the power button on her scroll, she faced the two and gave them a sly smile. "Adam will only become more engrossed in our plans with this. And if he should appear again, it'll aid us more in the long run if he continues to target the White Fang."

"Adam's not gonna like being used like that," Mercury pointed out cheekily.

"So long as he never knows, he'll be alright. Besides," she looked out the window to the fleet of ships that James had brought, "we have more pressing matters to tend to then being curriers for some petty Faunus with a chip on his shoulder."

"Then how do we give him a report on this? He's going to ask if we knew about it." Emerald warned.

"Let me deal with him. In the meantime, you should go do some digging of your own. Figure out who does what and who's competing in the tournament. The more we know the better our odds will be."

Grinning, Mercury sprang to his feet and stalked towards the door. "But keep a low profile, right?" Cinder inclined her head with the same smile as before. Students could get away with so much.

"And what about me?" Emerald asked hopefully. Before the woman could answer her Scroll buzzed to life. She read the contents of a message she was sent before looking to her fellow female. "Adam?"

"He wants to run an operation against the unknown attacker. I'm allowing this to go through," she explained as she furious typed away on the device. "I want you to monitor it. If the trap is sprung and the prey escapes, observe him and nothing more. Make sure that if you get a chance to get photos and video footage, take it. The world will see the monsters that Beacon has created." Smiling, she set out. _I'm going to enjoy watching you burn alive, Ozpin. She is right about you. You are a very naïve man._ She looked back at her device and then grabbed a needle to continue her work on her dust imbued dress.


	21. The Cliff to the Fall

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

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Chapter 20

"Alright," an annoyed James snapped, "now that you've eaten, gotten a shower, and dressed, can we please get down to business?"

Naruto chuckled endlessly as if he were remembering a joke someone told him. Either way, it was annoying James and humoring a delighted Ozpin as he sipped on his coffee mug some more.

Dressed in his usual clothes, Naruto sat at the other end of the table with a bowl of ramen stewing in front of him and a large glass of water. To his right was Ozpin and to the right of Ozpin was Glynda. To Naruto's left, Sasuke sat with a visible scowl on his face. When Naruto had asked what was wrong with him, Sasuke's reply had been a grunt of annoyance and silence. The only other thing he did was look at Ozpin as though he was trying to figure him out. Perhaps Ozpin had done something to him?

"Sure," Naruto answered with a burp following soon after. He leaned forward, one hand on his Scroll, the other reaching for the cup of water. "When I arrived at the warehouse, they were gathering a lot of Faunus for their rally. I snuck in to the facility using a disguise. They allowed a lot of Faunus to gather before going over their plans. They spoke briefly about how they could supply anyone that was staying with that giant machine they had. After that, things went sideways."

"Which brings me to my question," Ozpin cut in before James could speak. "James, have you made any progress on finding out how they got one of your new machines before it went to the front lines?"

Inhaling deeply, Ironwood placed his Scroll on the table and a hologram appeared from within the confines of the table itself. It showed images of broken parts from the destroyed machine that had fought and lost against the members of Team RWBY when it was piloted from Roman Torchwick. "We've made some progress on that front. We don't know exactly who managed to do it, but we have a clear idea on what took place. The model numbers on the machine show that it was coming out of one of the larger facilities for their production at the Schnee Company. We know that it was one of fifty products meant to be shipped out in its batch. We don't know where it happened, but someone was able to breach the firewalls on the programs and mark it as arrived for its destination, instead of showing that it was jacked."

"Someone managed to breach _your_ firewalls?" Glynda asked fearfully.

"We're looking into it right now, but we have a few people that we're looking into on who might have done it. What we know is that when the cargo left the facility, the GPS wasn't hacked and showed it made a stop eighty miles north of the intend destination. The truck then went dark for two hours. In that time, we believe the prototypes were pulled off and sent here as a show of good will by Torchwick to the White Fang. Once the truck was brought back online and made its intended stop at the actually destination. After that the cargo goes entirely dark and we don't see it again until the other day."

"How many do they possibly have their hands on?" Ozpin asked.

"It's hard to say," James confessed. "I'm calling all the stations that were supposed to get models for testing to make sure that they received them. I'm ordering for visual and photographic checks of them. If the container isn't there, we'll know how many they have. And I'm sending my best people to look into it. I do have another shipment on the way over here to resupply my ships and bring over remaining students. It's being accompanied by another one of my best. It won't get stolen either."

"And how do you know that?"

"It's a Schnee." Ozpin leaned back in his chair and knew the full extent of the answer he'd received. "She won't let anything happen to the cargo or the students."

"It's not so much the students we're worried about, James," Glynda told him with a silent hiss of frustration. Sasuke crossed his arms and looked to his blond haired friend. Glynda caught it and snapped off, "And why did we let Sasuke come in on this meeting? He has no say in any of this."

"I brought Sasuke here because he has some say in this," Ozpin informed her tightly, leaving no room for debate on the subject. "Once this meeting is done, he'll be part of the next one. Besides, a need for trust has arisen again with him. Am I wrong, Sasuke?"

Put on the spot, the former Uchiha leaned forward and said, "You're sending Naruto out against enemies he's not truly equipped to handle. He didn't have his new sword, he didn't have backup, and he got shot several times," before leaning back and finishing with, "Forgive me if my faith in you is a little misplaced right now."

"And how do you feel about all of this, Naruto?" Ozpin made sure to keep eye contact with Sasuke as he asked the blond.

Naruto glanced around the room before saying, "As long as it sends me home, I'm okay with it. I'll be getting my sword today and then after that, I'm going out with Port to find more Grimm for his class." James narrowed his eyes on the blond and opened his mouth to berate him before he continued. "But you are right, Sasuke, I didn't have backup and didn't have my new sword. I'm not equipped to handle people that use guns, but that said, I'm also equipped to take them out silently. If I had more protection, someone else to help as well, I things might have played out differently."

"So you want a partner?" Glynda asked fearfully. The fact that Naruto wanted to keep doing this was insane. What was worse was that he was asking for a partner. All major people that could assist him were out doing jobs and the only other people that _could_ assist him were more than likely not capable of keeping up with him or working with him. Naruto wasn't exactly the best person in the world to work with when it came to taking simple tasks. "There's no one readily available to be of any assistance to you for any job we might have you take."

"Actually," James cut in, "there is someone he _could_ work with. But it'd be a long stretch and I'm not sure she'd agree to it. Even if I ordered her to."

"I could be his partner." Sasuke told them sternly.

"You're a student and I don't like the idea of Ozpin putting children in dangerous situations like that."

"Our Sensei, Hatake Kakashi, was a squad leader when he was around our age. That meant he was leading people older than us into battle and they _had_ to listen to him." Sasuke countered angrily. "The age thing isn't going to work on us."

"Fair enough," James muttered.

"As you did receive a payment for your services that were rendered, you may go and get more clothes to better equip yourself for these jobs if they entail the same level of danger." Ozpin took a sip of his drink before continuing. "And on the subject of your payment, if you so desire, I can offer you a place close by the school if you wish to no longer stay at the dorms."

"I'd rather have him remain around here, if that's okay with you." Sasuke told him. Naruto's blue eye twitched in irritation as Sasuke continued. "Besides, according to your laws, Naruto and I wouldn't be able to get a place, as we're not old enough to be considered legal adults here. Back in our world, as soon as we get our headbands, we're considered adults, meaning we can drink, smoke, have kids, and own homes."

"Barbaric," James said with a hiss.

"That might be true, but this place is no better. The only difference is a small increase in age and then they can start doing dangerous jobs as well."

"Only for the gifted and the ones we believe are truly ready!"

"Do you think we hit the ground running and killing? We had to do simple missions that involved picking up dog shit, taking said dogs on walks, or finding some bimbo's kitty! We didn't start out killing people endlessly like you seem to think. Our first real dangerous mission was one where went up against another Jounin Ninja and his apprentice. And even our sensei barely walked away from that!"

"Sasuke!" Naruto seemingly freaked on him. The former Uchiha fell silent as his friend held his head. "It doesn't matter. Ozpin has already made it clear that he can give us a fake background if need be and if I wanted to do this, I could just make an older version of myself to take the place. It's not like it's going to be hard to fool anyone with my appearance if I do that."

"So you'd be okay living on your own again?"

Naruto's jaw tightened. "I'm not okay with it, but if I have to, I will."

"Then I won't show you any of the properties that are available. I was merely making a suggestion if you desired such. Now that we have that out of the way, we can discuss a more concerning topic that I'm sure we're all interested in." Ozpin laced his fingers together and took a deep breath. "You said your father and mother were in you, but passed out before you could elaborate. How is this possible?"

Naruto's blue eye twitched again, but not out of irritation. Licking his lips, he leaned forward and said, "My mother and father both reside within me, yes. But from understanding they have something important to do with me that involved the Kyuubi. They won't tell me what, as they're afraid he'll find out. So they're keeping quiet on the subject. But they are within my mind and they can speak through me if I allow it. My father is the former Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and my mother is the only known survivor from a village famous for their Sealing Arts."

"Hold up!" Sasuke turned to his former teammate and pointed at him with a stunned look in his eye. "Your father is the Yondaime Hokage?" Naruto nodded slowly. Sasuke snickered. "Well that explains why they put him in you then. That man supposedly had more honor in his body than anyone else we know. He put him in you because he didn't want anyone else to go through that kind of life."

"Not really," Naruto confessed bitterly. "His motives were a tad bit more selfish, but in the right place. He had enemies and wanted to protect me from them. This brings me to a sad part in all of this, Sasuke. The Kyuubi attack wasn't random. Someone summoned him to our village by taking control of the previous host for him." Naruto paused to shut his eyes. "The previous host was my mother and on the day I was born, a masked man with one Sharingan Eye appeared and took the Kyuubi out of her to attack Konoha."

Sasuke touched his Sharingan eye and contemplated the information and the theory he was working with.

James looked between the two boys and said, "How does one remove such a thing from the host?"

"I don't know. What I do know is that female Jinchuuriki hold an baby for ten months and the seal weakens as a result of the newborn being formed in them. The baby feeds off the seal, which weakens it and thus the Kyuubi was granted a way to escape. The masked man took Kyuubi under his control and then ripped him free from my mother. After that, the rest is history." Naruto chuckled and slapped Sasuke's shoulder. "There is a funny thing in all of that, though. My mother knew your mother and you when you were born. She asked you to protect me, since you're older an all that."

"We'll I've done a bang up job so far."

"Not like I made it easy for you. But hey, you're doing a good job now! So there's that!"

"Well as interesting as that is, I feel as though we need to get more on the topic of what this means for you, since they seem to be occupying your head." Glynda adjusted her glasses as she got them back on topic. "How can you be sure that their information is correct and that this isn't some trick created by the Kyuubi?"

"I can vouch for that, actually." Sasuke licked his teeth when his friend turned his way. "When I was still in your mind, I saw a woman with red hair. She kissed you on the forehead to wake you up. I'm assuming that's your mother." Naruto nodded slowly. "And before I could free you from the Kyuubi's grasp, I saw a flash of… something… pull me out of the way of Kyuubi's claw and save me from his clutches. So I'm assuming that was your father." Again, Naruto nodded. "The Kyuubi wouldn't create something that would thwart him. He wants to be free."

"So they have no way of impacting what Naruto does, right?" James asked carefully. Naruto nodded when Sasuke glanced his way. "That's fine. I'm not sure how powerful these people are, but I get the feeling that they had darker motives than what they would tell a child. Even if said child is their son." The Jinchuuriki gave a snort of annoyance as James pointed at him. "The whole idea of putting a foreign energy that is not your own is just wrong. It goes against everything that makes us human."

"James," Ozpin's voice was very crisp as he spoke. "I would steady with that airbrush of yours, my friend." James backed off and gave his fellow headmaster a sharp glance before shutting his eyes and taking a sip from coffee mug. "I believe this will conclude the meeting. We'll be speaking again in a few days. For the time being, however, we're going to pretend that none of this has happened and no one is allowed to talk about the events at the rally. Sasuke, we are trusting you with a lot right now, so don't make me regret this."

The student nodded as he got to his feet. Naruto did as well and followed him to the elevator. As soon as the door shut and they began their journey down, Sasuke asked, "So your father is the former Hokage… Didn't expect that from you… So your mother is also a sealing expert?"

"Yeah," Naruto answered quickly. "They're going to teach me how to do some of it with what time they have. I'll teach you as well." Naruto paused and added, "Father had an idea on how to complete some of the theories we're working on with throwing some of our Jutsus. But he also has something that he wants to pass along the two of us since we're the only real Ninja's here." The doors opened and the two walked out. "He said that our chakras have an elemental property to them and that if we learn them, they use less chakra when we cast them if they are that type."

"Yeah," Sasuke grumbled. "Kakashi-sensei told me what mine is. It's not really a surprise to anyone, but my affinity is with fire and lightning."

"Figures you'd have two," Naruto grumbled bitterly. He cheered up suddenly as he said, "The reason I'm going to teach you something I know is because my dad couldn't figure out either. The Rasengan isn't complete." Sasuke's came to a complete stop to stare at him. "I was surprised to. He had the idea of putting his elemental in it so that it would have more of an effect when he was using it. He wasn't able to do it, but he said that it was like trying to look left and right at the same time. The Rasengan already has a shell comprised of chakra, which you have to create for it and add to its drill ability."

"So in order to do this, you have to first create the Rasengan with normal chakra, and then fuse it with chakra of the elemental type you have or intend to use?" Naruto nodded unhappily. If his old man couldn't do it, what chance did they have? "Sounds hard, but if done properly, it would be a powerful ability…" His single eye narrowed as his mind began to toy with the thought of the Rasengan at his command. If he could do what the former Hokage could not then what chance did they really have? Naruto couldn't also be teamed up with him to do a combination attack. So they'd have to solve the puzzle and work it out. "I have classes in the morning. We'll work on this tomorrow after class. Stay out of trouble."

"As you wish, Nii-san."

"Don't do that."

Naruto cracked a grin and left before he suffered under the wraith of his _older brother_.

(-)

Blake furiously scrolled through the reports of the attack on the White Fang rally as she looked for anything out of the ordinary with what had transpired. Usually the media would have more answers than they realized. A few pretty words by anyone could mask a tragedy. But fewer words could unmask one. That was what Blake was looking for. She was looking for the words that would tell her more about what had happened and what might have gone down. Already she had enough evidence to rule out rival terrorist group, hateful humans striking against them, or an inside man.

This was something else.

One report gave her enough evidence to give her the thought that this was a paid job. The masked man now known simply as Red had clearly been hired by someone to take them out. None of the White Fang members knew who this person was or why they had shown up. Survivors from the incident reported that he had dropped from the ceiling and started killing them, but not until after he had taken a few lives by accident. He had been knocking people out and then, as if a switch had been flipped, started killing them. One prisoner recalled the events prior where she saw a boy with blond hair giving her an odd look, but never thought anything on it, but when the whole thing started going sideways and the bodies started dropping, it was by a blond haired boy with a broken blade.

Blake wasn't jumping to conclusions, but the broken blade thing wasn't uncommon. There were many people out there that used a broken blade to fight with and people would _assume_ that the weapon was broken simple because it looked broken. What made her jump to conclusions was the blond hair was noteworthy to her. She knew that there were a lot of blonds out there in their world. But there was only really a few people she could see with a broken blade that had blond hair, but only one truly came to mind and that was Naruto. If it was him, why did he go to the rally and kill them?

The Faunus girl was tempted to find him and ask him, but what if he was ordered to do it by someone like Ozpin? She couldn't go to the cops. They'd laugh at her for more than just the simple reason that the White Fang was now nothing but terrorists. It also wasn't such a dark thing for someone like Ozpin to make such a terrible decision if given no other option. He was a headmaster and a Huntsman for a reason. They could take jobs ranging from simple escorts around town to full blown assassination if the job required it. She wasn't about to tempt fate and ask him if he ordered such a thing.

 _I could talk to Naruto. See if he knows anything. Maybe he does._ She clenched her jaw as she saw Sasuke walk by with a notepad in hand as he furiously scribbled something on it. _I could also talk to Sasuke about it._ She decided against it in the end and favored looking through the media on the internet for more answers. They pretty much said the same thing the other papers and forums had already said but with different words. She got fed up and clicked off it to search for more information on what the White Fang were most likely doing.

Furiously typing away she found the much needed website and began scrolling through the articles. Probably the best thing about the White Fang was its way of using websites to hide information to those that knew how to find it. One such website that could give a clue as to where to look for more information on plans, operations, recruitment centers, and donation sites were food recipes. If you scrolled through the list of ingredients to find names to websites by adding the first, middle, and last ingredient in the lists provided. Once you had them sorted out you could go to a website that would then ask you for a password and a user ID. Both of these were provided in the second and fifth ingredient on the list from the previous website that would then link you to a history website that would talk about a historical landmark for the week. If you were to save the images they had, it would come up as a list of names for new members. In order to hide the names more effectively they would put random numbers in between various letters, but in order to do a space between names they'd put two random numbers and when the name change to another person entirely they would put four numbers.

She saved the image to her Scroll for later use and the historical landmark in question. It wasn't too far away this week.

Shutting down the terminal she, grabbed her Scroll, tucked a stray strand of hair behind her human ear, and started heading back to her dorm. The broken moon cast a sharp glow across the land and made her shadow appear longer than it actually was. When she reached the dorms, she paused and glanced down the other way. Huffing, she marched down the hallway, took a left, followed the path, took a right, and ended at another room. Knocking gently, she waited for something to come from the other side. It was late and she doubted she'd get one.

"Hold on a second," Naruto's voice echoed from behind the door. There was a rustle of something and then a thud, followed closely by a muttering of curses before she heard the door unlock and open. Naruto huffed as and rubbed a red mark on his forehead. "Blake? Is something wrong?"

"I'm fine. I just wanted to see if you wanted to talk."

Looking down the hallway for anything odd, Naruto nodded and let her in. "Sure," he said as he held the door open fully. She walked in and looked around the room, sizing it up as she moved to the bed. "I'll get you some tea."

"I don't think I'll be around for long," she confessed. .Naruto shrugged and started making some anyways. "Did you get your new sword?"

"It's under the bed. Little bit bigger than I thought it'd be. Well… Longer than I thought it'd be."

Blake found the case under the bed and pulled it out. Naruto watched her carefully as she sat it on his bed and opened the case up. The smith had done a fine job on creating the thing. It was truly a work of art. Ozpin confessed that the man Naruto saw also forged Sasuke's blade. Sasuke's blade was already imbued with enough dust to compensate for the enhancing part of his chakra. Naruto's sword was simple, unrefined, and made of weak metals. This new sword was forged with stronger stuff, more dust, and was heavily refined to a point that the blade itself was so sharp that putting his finger on it could cut skin.

Blake picked up the weapon and marveled at the craftsmanship on it. The sheath was black as night with a single wide leather strap so that it could be carried across his back. At the end of the sheath was a metal brace that curved upwards like a sword and sported two lines that were curved into the design of fire. She ran a thumb over the edge of it before unsheathing the blade. It was slightly longer than before, something Blake was quick to notice. The blade was also red, just like how the man had promised it would be. Blake ran a thumb over the edge of the blade and winced when it cut through her flesh.

"It's not a reverse blade anymore?" She turned to face him worried by the change.

"It was a screw up in the order," Naruto grumbled. He tossed a few bags into the kettle and started letting them soak.

Going back to looking at the blade, there were several other differences to it that separated it from the original. The guard was now a bit wider, the handle a bit longer, and the tassel was now removed. The handle was now made of plastic and silver metal. The plastic parts lined over the other in a pattern similar to shingles and sported a thin groove on each one that dug into the skin and acted like an adhesive. Blake gave the sword a few test swings and came to the conclusion that even Naruto's hands became sweaty; the sword wouldn't fly from him hands. At the end of the blade the same design was carved into the blade like the one on the sheath.

Satisfied with it, she sheathed the weapon and put it back in the case.

"When did you get it?"

"I went out the other day."

Shrugging, she glanced around his room. It was a lot cleaner compared to the last time she came here. She found books and notepads scattered across his desk. Furious writing was on each of the pages that she could see, all of them pertaining to Ninjutsu and Chakra. There were even drawings now of complex art that would baffle the minds of even the greatest artiest. "Didn't take you for someone that could draw," she confessed.

Naruto stalked around the small table he was using as a makeshift kitten and got behind her. Blake nearly jumped as he put his hands over hers and pointed to one of the drawings. "It's a seal," he told her. He released it and stole her bow in the process. Her hands reached out to snatch it from him but he made it disappear in a poof of smoke. Her eyes went wide as he lifted the piece of paper and said, "It's not sealed inside the paper." He bit his finger and drew blood across it. In a flash of smoke the bow was back in his hand. She snatched it up and moved to a mirror to put it back in place. "Why do you wear that bow?"

"I don't want people to see me as what I am, but rather who I am."

"And who are you?"

She paused and looked at herself in the mirror. More importantly, she looked at him. Naruto wore his "Faunus" marks proudly. So did Sun, Persia, Jasper, and Velvet. They didn't care if the world saw them as Faunus or not. After several minutes of working the bow to perfection, she turned around and glared at him. "Don't touch the bow unless I tell you to."

"You didn't answer my question."

"Have you been spending time with Ozpin?" Naruto rolled his eyes. She went red in the face. "You have, haven't you? Did he ask you to ask me that question again?"

"No! I was just asking what you mean by that. Nothing more."

Blake rolled her eyes and sniffed the air as the tea finished boiling. Naruto poured it into a pitcher and added more water. He grabbed two cups and filled them with ice and tea. He presented one to Blake. She took a sip of it and then returned to his bed. Naruto sat at the desk and cleared a spot for their cups.

"Ozpin asked me that same question a few months back. I didn't have an answer for them… And I don't have an answer for you either."

"That's okay. I was just curious about how you want people to see you, that's all."

"And how do you want people to see you?"

"I don't care what the world thinks about me. I never have. Not since I got here. This isn't my world. They can hate me, love me, or just ignore me. I won't care. The only thing I care about is protecting what's important to me."

"And what's important to you?"

Naruto took a sip of tea and shut his eyes. Blake's heart skipped a beat when they opened. "My friends are the best of me. So I want to protect them. They rescued me from my loneliness, so I'll do everything I can to protect them." He had a faraway look in his eye as he gazed at her.

Blake buried herself in her drink and hastily gulped the last of it down. "I should be going. Weiss will wanna know where I've been and Yang would want details if I get caught." She moved to the door. Naruto opened it for her and she hesitated in the hallway. "You know it's better to ask for forgiveness than it is permission, right?" Naruto looked clueless. She closed her eyes and started walking away.

"Blake," Naruto called out to her. She stopped and turned to him. "I have a question that I can't answer that maybe you can. It started bugging me the day I hurt your… well… ear… I realized that I can't protect anyone without a sword, but I can't embrace them with one either. So in the end, what truly can I do if I want to be happy with someone else?"

Blake's bow twitched and she looked down the hallway. She could see Yang in her minds' eye sitting up waiting for her to arrive. Weiss was studying to keep herself awake while Ruby was passed out in bed. "I don't know. I don't have an answer for that."

Naruto looked away with a sigh of regret. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Right," she said softly. _In the morning…_ She walked away and found her room. Everything was just how she pictured it.


	22. It's a Start

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

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Chapter 21

The furious pounding on the door was only just as irritating to Sasuke as it was to Emert as Persia continued to bang on the door to the bathroom. It wouldn't have been nearly as bad if he was doing anything else at the moment, but Persia wanted something from him, even while he was taking a dump. Too bad for Emert and his sensitive nose on this one. He shouldn't have made them eat burritos last night. The poor guy slept with an air freshener by his face the whole night.

"I'm almost done," he called out.

"Well hurry up! The Princess wants to talk to you about something."

Sasuke sighed and ran a hand over his face. Persia had a low tolerance for those that hated other Faunus and Weiss was one of the worsts. Sure, she had a Faunus teammate that she _seemed_ to care for, but not nearly as much as she did for others of her group. One could say that she spent more time with Ruby than she did Blake or Yang, as Sasuke could hardly remember a time where she didn't talk to either girl for prolonged periods of the day. In fact, if he were remembering things based on the time he spent around them, she had only ever spoken a grand total of about eighteen words to each girl.

"Okay…" He could see her shrugging her shoulders and leaving after that in his minds' eye. She had plans for today once class was over. She favored be punctual and maintaining good grades. If there was ever a person he could say was a clone of Sakura, it would be Persia in smarts alone. Finishing up, he washed his hands, brushed his teeth, and walked out. Sure enough, Weiss was in their room and trying to not stab the sleeping Emert that should have been up an hour ago. "Can I help you?"

"Yes," she turned to him and waved a hand in front of her face. "Preferably outside."

The former Uchiha looked over to his sleeping Faunus friend and then to Jasper as the man walked inside the bathroom and hastily shut the door. "Sure," he replied. "Let me wake up Emert first. He needs to get around."

"Why is not up yet? I thought he has a sensitive nose or something."

"He does." Sasuke grabbed the air freshener from beside his sleeping friends' face and shook him a few times. "Wake up! Time to get ready for class."

"Hjuhn poo tsluth raw," he slurred incoherently while rolling out of bed, horrifying Weiss in the process with his full nudity. She turned around sharply and focused on the door, and more importantly, freedom from the smell of human waste and full frontal male nudity. She prided herself on knowing the full anatomy of a man from a book and not seeing one or feeling up close and personal. She was too young for that. Emert made a whining noise as the stench hit him. "Oh god! Heightened sense of smell sucks worse than… well it's the worst!" He got to his feet, grabbed some boxers, and looked at the heiress. "You're future husband will look better than me, Weiss. I know it."

"Get dressed, take a shower, and get ready for class," Sasuke grumbled with a shake of his head. It was hard not to laugh.

"In that order?"

Sasuke erupted into a fit of chuckles at the question. Emert grabbed some clothes and made his way to the bathroom only to realize that Jasper was inside and he would have to wait. During which time, Sasuke and Weiss stepped outside and began walking towards their first class. "So what's up?"

"Is Naruto sexual active?"

Sasuke came to a complete stop to look and judge the heiress on her question and sanity. Weiss presented the question with a business-like expression of coldness and detachment from the subject at hand. Already the gears were turning his head as to why she would ask such a question. Naruto had a pretty simple understanding of females, so the idea of him making a move on Weiss was likely, but not something he'd do. Weiss already showed her feelings for him by way of berating him, dissing him, and flat out calling him stupid on several occasions. She even went to Ozpin on the notion that Naruto was not fit to be a teachers' assistant by any means, grounds that were a hundred percent true, but not one that Ozpin was willing to admit to.

But there was a flip side to that.

Naruto was understandably dumb when it came to understanding something as simple as being told off by any girl. Sasuke wasn't sure how many times he saw Sakura berate Naruto for not getting the memo that she hated him. She wanted nothing to do with him and he still kept going back to her. Even now with the threat of death looming over her if he returned he wanted to go back. Maybe that was why he wanted to go back? Have his mind read, see their conversation, check out Sakura's mind, see that it was true, and then ship her off to the executioners block. So if Naruto had suddenly take an interest in Weiss without his knowledge then bravo since that was a dead horse no one wanted to beat with a ten foot stick aside from Jaune, and even then, Jaune was begin to relent.

"Can I get some backstory on this?" he asked calmly.

Weiss huffed in annoyance as she glanced at her nails while explaining. "Ever since the White Fang rally, Blake has spent a lot of time in the library doing research on them. She wants to know what happened. We all do." She half lied there. No one knew about their secret operation over the weekend and she was going to keep it that way. She hadn't even finished going over all the information just yet, but she was getting a picture. A lot of other dust stores were being robed as well. Her father was going insane by the amount of money he was losing. As a result, Dust prices were now going through the roof. Before long they'd be higher than the average minimal wage worker. "But last night she said she went to the library and I went there to find her. She wasn't there. I returned to the dorm and waited with Yang. About one in the morning she showed up and confessed to being with Naruto."

"And you think they had sex?"

"She had the signs of it." Sasuke snorted. As far as he was concerned, Jaune had about as much a chance with Weiss as Naruto had with Blake. And if there was something there, his all-powerful eye sure couldn't see it. "You don't believe me? She walked in with a faraway look in her eye very familiar to someone when they've… done it." She stuttered and for a moment lost her composure.

"So you're basing this on a look? That implies you've had sex and know what it looks like because someone has pointed it out to you."

Weiss jabbed her finger in his chest and snarled at him. "I have not had sex. I am pure as the snow itself. I am a pure flower of innocence when it comes to that."

"Then how do you know what it looks like?"

"I…" Her eyes hardened and she started walking faster. Sasuke shook his head and followed her. "That's none of your business."

"Then it's none of your business on whether or not he's had sex."

"The two of them should not be together. For one, she's older than him."

"Oh here we go with the age thing again…" he muttered out loud. It always came back to that. Age. Age. Age. AGE! Why wouldn't this world be like theirs in just that field? That wouldn't hurt the world to have a few thirteen year olds out there running around slaying monsters and stopping crime or rescuing a cat from a tree. He did it. Kakashi did it. He was pretty sure Ruby already did it. The only person he knew that didn't do it was probably his brother because of how powerful he was. He never heard about those stories growing up. He wouldn't have liked them either. Another reason for why his world was just backwards, maybe. Or maybe it was an early sign that he was the one messed up in the head when all he wanted to hear for stories about his brother was his missions that took him all over the world to kill people.

"Age thing?" Weiss repeated. She slowed her pace to match his. That caught her attention.

Looking for a quick escape on the subject, he found none and answered it with a half lie. "Back home, where I'm from, it's a do or die kind of place. If you can fight, you're expected to fight. So people that can fight are often given special privileges for their age. You can kind of see it around here as well if you look really hard. Like those gifted students that are younger than us but still somehow end up here because they're either really smart or really skilled at what they do."

"That's not really the same as what you just freaked out on," Weiss pointed out accusingly.

Staring at her and wishing to shut her up, he changed topics. "So you haven't had sex and yet you know the look. That implies one of three things. You've seen someone in the afterglow of it, you've had sex and refuse to talk about it, or you actually have watched a real porno, not the fake stuff the industry puts out." Weiss stopped and pointed an accusing finger at him again. Her mouth moved, but nothing came out. "You strike me as someone too _pure_ to have watched a porno, so that rules that one out. And you also don't act like you've had sex, otherwise you'd be more mellow." _And that is the pot calling the kettle black._ "Or, you've seen a family member after having sex. Given your age difference between yourself and your sister, I'd wager it was her."

Weiss turned and started walking. Sasuke followed.

"So it was your sister. You have to cover for her from your dad?"

"I'm not having this conversation." Sasuke grabbed her wrist and yanked her towards him hard. She punched him in the face but lacked and real strength to do nothing more than hurt her hand. "Let go of me!"

"You started this conversation. Now you're going to finish it. You can't just accuse someone of having sex. And even then, why does it matter? Who fucked who, when and where doesn't affect you at all! If I had sex with you right now, does it affect Yang?" Weiss opened her mouth to scream at him some more but he clamped a hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. "Exactly. It doesn't affect her." He released her. "If Naruto had sex with Blake, good for him. I'd actually congratulate him for finding a woman. Even if it was for a one night stand or a mistake. You know why? He had a shit life and the one girl he loved always hated him. He was too stupid to actually look for another girl. Saddest part of it all is that he was blind to the one girl that did love him, and as it turns out, they were just like your family."

"It's still wrong," Weiss argued, ripping her hand from his grip. "The age difference alone is wrong. She's about to be eighteen soon. He's what? Thirteen… maybe fourteen. There's a law against that stuff. Anyone dating someone younger than eighteen when the other person is older is considered a crime and can be considered a pedophile."

"I'm well aware of how that law works and believe me, he is too. But there are workarounds for it. Your father is a businessman. I'm sure you've seen workaround for problems like that. It's called not letting anyone know. Showing it only behind closed doors. That isn't uncommon, even here. Maybe once a week there is someone that is doing it openly and they suffer for it. Sometimes the parents' consent to it because they knew each other for a long time. Do you think if they started dating right now, Ozpin would throw the book at him when Blake turns eighteen? I highly doubt it!"

"So you'd allow her to take advantage of him?"

 _Ozpin is taking advantage of him for his skills and power. At this point I'd rather have him as a student here because he wouldn't be able to send him out on jobs like the last one._ Sasuke wished he could tell her that but knew that in the end he couldn't and was content with that in some dark way. "Weiss," he rubbed the bridge of his nose, "do you think so little of him? Sure, he's an idiot. I could sit here all day and tell you all the stupid things he did when we were little, but I'm not going to waste a day away like that. Naruto might not be the wisest of people, but even he knows when he's being played. Trust me on that. He's good at reading people."

"Well he still shouldn't date someone like Blake."

"Why? Because she's a Faunus?" Weiss's eye twitched in fear. "I've known since the day I met her. I just don't care enough to regulate who he should and shouldn't date. Doing something like that is no better than what my family tried to do with my older brother when they wanted him to marry his cousin to keep the bloodlines we have intact. My blood is special, but it's not nearly as special as yours blood, I'm afraid." He grabbed her wrist and squeezed it tight. "Just because she's a Faunus doesn't meant she can't love a human. It's the same way for him. So if they do have something going on behind our backs, don't interfere."

"And why shouldn't I?"

Sasuke released her, his eye darkening. "Have you ever lost someone you want to bring back? Maybe they didn't die, but they were suddenly out of your grasp and you wanted them back so much that nothing else mattered? Naruto has also had this feeling of loneliness inside him that he would do anything to remove from himself. Have you ever really looked him in the eyes? Have you truly ever stopped to wonder what he hides behind his mask of joy? I've seen it once before. His loneliness is without equal. I thought I was once truly the loneliest person in the world until I met him. Born with nothing, kicked from the orphanage because he was a different, and treated like garbage from the day he was born, Naruto had never known anything other than the emptiness and sorrow. And I'm sure that if you look closely into the eyes of Blake you'll see the same thing."

"I have looked into her eyes!" Weiss snarled at him.

"Then you clearly missed what she hides behind them."

"And what about you? What do you hide behind your _eye_?"

"Disappointment, regret, sorrow, hatred, and a tinge of loneliness," he confessed sadly. Weiss didn't flinch under the power of his words. "I can see clearly what you hide behind your eyes. "I can see into your very soul. Make no mistake about that, Schnee." Sasuke walked past her. "And I wouldn't ask either of them about what kind of things they do in their spare time."

(-)

"What did you do with Blake last night?"

Naruto arched a thin brow as he waited in line to get lunch. There was one thing Naruto would claim to never miss out on, and that was free Ramen. As much as Velvet wanted him to stop eating it, he never would. Cute girl, but she ate more vegetables than he'd willingly eat in a life time. Maybe that was her bunny side poking through? Did Faunus actually do that? Did they have traits from their animal counterparts? Did that mean Blake would get curious about everything and like only fish? She ate his Ramen when it was fish.

Still, there was a more growing concern over their question. Sasuke would never be that direct when asking him a question. Usually Sasuke was sideways about his questions with him. This was straight and narrow, getting right to the point.

"And how are you this fine evening? That's good to hear. No. I'm not taking any strange jobs right now, Sasuke. Yes, I am looking forward to my hunting trip with Port." Naruto rambled off as he grabbed the delicious bowl of Ramen from the counter. Sasuke followed him with a sandwich and some chips, clearly unhappy with his less than stellar answer. "She came by to talk last night. Why do you care?" Naruto paused and glanced around the lively cafeteria before adding, "And how did you know she came by to visit me? Stalking me?" as he sat down.

Sasuke sat down in front of him, popping the top on his bottle of water as he answered him. "Weiss came by and visited me about it. Had other questions pertaining to the event of last night. Not that I really care, but a need to know had certainly arisen, given some culture differences between our area and this area."

"Why do you care?"

Sasuke took a long pull from his drink before answering with, "Culture differences," and going back to drinking his water. Naruto rolled his eyes. "Has Ozpin or anyone else talked to you about the laws of this place?" Naruto inhaled deeply through his nose, a gesture that Sasuke knew all too well. Naruto either had read up on the rules of this world and ignored them or hadn't read them, and simply didn't care about them either. Both options truly seemed reasonable given the situation at the moment. "Blake is seventeen, about to be eighteen."

"Yes. Because the subject of birthdays comes up so much in our conversations," Naruto confessed irritably. He slurped up some of the noodles while Sasuke gave him a withering glare. "Nothing happened. And again, why do you-Wait better question. Why does Weiss care?"

"Okay we'll change the subject. I just thought I'd bring it to your attention that Miss Stick Up Her Butt thinks something is going on between you. At least the law isn't against you if you decide to date her." Naruto coughed and nearly choked on his Ramen. Sasuke reached over and patted him on the back. "Hey are you okay?"

"…Yeah…" he coughed out. "Do you want me to date Blake or something?"

"What you do is whatever you want. I don't care. All I care about is that you be happy."

"Well I am happy." Naruto finished his food and got up to leave. "So what about you and Weiss?"

"What about her?"

Naruto snorted and walked off. He had things he needed to take care of before the day was out.

(-)

"You're going to town tonight?" Yang asked Blake.

The cat Faunus rolled her eyes at her partners' antics. She already knew about what was going on. Blake was going to town to get more ammunition for her weapons. Ruby was quick to believe her, but Weiss and Yang were less believing of the whole thing.

"Yes… I'm going there to do some shopping."

"Without us?"

"Do you really wanna go shopping with me?"

"Depends on what you're after."

Blake stared silently at her partner. Weiss was buffering her nails as she listened in for her cue to step in.

"Are you going for panties?"

"No."

"Drat," Yang snapped her fingers and gave her feline friend a big grin to show she was playing. "Oh well. I've already seen your panties." She purred and Blake felt a need to claw her face as a result. If she wasn't as tired as she was, she might actually have done. But she needed her strength for what she had planned for today. "So why the sudden need to go to town? They have most everything we need here."

"I need something from town that I don't to talk about."

"Is it the book?" Blake froze in place and Yang smirked. "It is, isn't it? Did they make another already?"

"It is _not_ about getting a new book! Yang, just let me have some alone time."

"We have a bathroom for a reason."

"Yang!"

"What? We do."

Sighing, Blake hastily thought up a reason for why she needed to go town today. She couldn't openly state that there was a place not far out of the city that select members of the White Fang used as a hub for information. Rallies were one thing, this was different. Only high ranking members of the White Fang could gain access to it and only trusted and skilled members could guard it. It would have detailed plans on what they were up to and why they suddenly were robbing dust stores each hour of the night.

"Is it a hot date?"

"…Yes!" Blake nearly wanted to scream at Yang after she let those words slip. Weiss stopped messing with her nails long enough to look up from what she was doing and over to the hidden Faunus. Yang even stopped to smile even wider then before and practically bounce in place. "I just… want to be alone with… him… For the night… Okay?"

"I'm so happy for you!" Yang pulled Blake into a hug that nearly had the cat Faunus screamed in pain. Aura shielding was a great thing, even against people that had inhuman levels of strength. Setting her down, she jumped in place. "So who's the lucky guy? Or are you covering and it's a girl?"

"It's a guy." Blake wondered what Yang would have done.

"So who's the lucky guy?"

Blake stopped and looked at the ceiling. She was digging a pretty deep grave right now. She didn't want to drag them to a place that only she knew about and how their security worked on said place. They hardly ever updated their equipment at the places if it wasn't attacked, which given that no one truly knew of its existence meant it was hardly every attacked. Even the name they got it under belonged to a human, not a Faunus. They got it when things went south for the White Fang and they became what they are today.

She picked up her pace as Yang began to ask more questions on the matter. Blake tuned her out as she rounded the corner but that was when Yang grabbed her and gave her a toothy grin. "You will tell me right now who it is, or so help me, I'm following you over town."

The hidden Faunus got the message. Yang would stalk her to see where she was really going and then report it back to Ruby if it was a place she never said she was going.

Her eyes looked between the waiting Yang and the unhappy form that was Weiss. A few students passed them by and she took a deep breathe. No way would this backfire, right? "It's Naruto."

Yang released her and then looked to Weiss. The Schnee blinked, reached into her pockets and withdrew ten lien. "Told you!"

"I don't support their relationship." Weiss hissed through gritted teeth.

Blake took a calming breath and felt a moment of triumph. She could go uncontested now. No one would be watching her. She'd be free to go where she needed to and there would be no repercussions.

"Have you guys seen Sasuke?"

Blake's eyes snapped open and she felt her entire world go numb. Her head spun so hard to the left that she swore it spun around fully like an owls' before her gaze landed on the familiar whisker faced blond. If he spilled the beans she's be screwed and they'd know something was up.

Yang grabbed Naruto up in a tight hug that lifted him off the ground. "I'm so happy for you!" She sat him down and tapped his nose. "So how did it happen?"

Confused, Naruto scratched his head and said, "Well Sasuke walked around a corner while I was speaking to Port about the hunt we're going on and when I went to find him, he was gone. Can you help me find him? I really need to talk to him?"

"Not that you dolt!" Weiss hissed, finally having enough. She was out ten lien to this idiotic blond and his female counterpart. Thank god they weren't dating. The world would be doomed with their children throwing around puns and being hyperactive. Yang was hyper, sure, but Naruto was like hyper eating sugar and then that hyper sugar eater eating more sugar. The very thought of them procreating was just terrifying in Weiss's mind. "We're asking about how you two started dating!" She pointed from Blake to himself.

Naruto's head slowly craned to Blake's and she offered a sheepish smile. Blinking, he glanced back to the heiress and said, "I got her some yarn to play with," as though he were unsure of himself. Yang's grin nearly split her face in two with how wide it got. She threw her head back and laughed hard enough to lose control of her legs and fall flat on her back in the middle of the hallway. "Why do you care?"

Weiss stepped around the laughing blond girl and poked Naruto in the chest. "So then why are you going out with her into town tonight when classes are tomorrow? We have one more day of class before the weekend?"

"I booked it for today because they didn't have any other spots opened until next weekend," Blake lied smoothly. Naruto looked to her for a moment and then to the unbelieving Schnee. "You're just mad that I have a boyfriend before you do." Weiss's face became as red as Ruby's hood at the jab. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to talk to my boyfriend in private." She grabbed his shirt and pulled him away. Yang hadn't even managed to recover from the earlier joke and was now left in Weiss's capable hands.

"Sorry about that," Blake confessed as she released him. Naruto blinked and looked at his shirt where she had been holding. He smoothed it out. "I'm going into town and I needed a cover story."

"Why?"

"I just do, okay?"

"Well I'm involved now." Naruto jabbed a thumb in the general direction of the girls. Blake could hear Weiss berating a laughing Yang still. She was trying to get her up so they could return to their dorm and start homework. "I know a lot more than you seem to think I do," he told her. She froze and stared at him. "I'm not stupid. Not as stupid as I seem. So where are we going?"

Blake's gaze softened. "To an old hideout."

A/N

And that's that chapter. This chapter was one that was partially done a while back and I just needed to get to it. So that's why this chapter sort of came out pretty fast from the last update. I just had other projects that I was working on that sort of got in the way of completing this chapter sooner.

That said, one of the other projects should be out soon, hopefully by tonight, and its another Naruto RWBY story with a different style to it. Like I've always said, I write what I wanna read and I've yet to find a story like what that one is that I'm working on as well.


	23. Beliefs

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

This story is entirely fan-made and fictional. Any acts that you might find offensive, disguising, inhuman, wrong or just don't like, we are not liable for. You are reading this story of your own free will and not being forced, if you don't like something we are not forcing you to stay and read it. Please leave the page and re-frame from reading the chapter and or story. All Copyrighted Characters belong to their respect owners. We don't claim anything that is not our own creation and are merely using them for fan made material.

We accept constructive criticize and help but being rude and disrespectful will not be tolerated. This is done for the fun of writing not to make every little person happy, while making people happy with are stories is great we are not here for Money, Fame or Fortune this is done for the simply joy of writing.

Chapter 22

"That's adorable."

"Shut up." 

Naruto snorted and glanced over at Blake as they belly crawled through two feet high weeds in a muddy field. Caked in mud, grim, and whatever else was in the ground and the river they had crossed to get here in the dead of night, Naruto was fairly certain that at this point, Blake should be cold. He could thank the power of Kyuubi on why he wasn't cold. Chakra had too many good uses, but clearly, Aura was starting to catch up on that field. Sasuke had an Ice Semblance, was probably now immune to the cold temperature in more ways than one, and it healed all wounds short of hangovers. Naruto, having only chakra and an absurd healing factor, did not have a semblance, used his chakra for keeping warm when it was required of him, and didn't bring much else to the table in terms of energy based use for mundane things like this.

So; Aura one, Chakra zero?

What Naruto found adorable, however, was Blake's ears. With mud on her body, her little ears swiveling around to every sound she could hear, it was rather cute to look at given the dangerous operation that they were handling. If things were different, Naruto was sure that Blake might have turned around and slapped him for even uttering such a thing in her presence towards her about the one secret she really wanted to keep from the world. Even if she was willing to admit she was a former member of the White Fang, her ears were more of a secret she wanted to keep over the knowledge of her former allegiance.

Tough break because Naruto would think the whole thing cute anyways. And as a growing trend in his life, it seemed that all powerful females in his life were super cute as well. Ino was cute, but not Sakura cute. And Hinata was cute, but, once again, not Sakura cute. Blake, however, was somewhat Sakura cute. She just didn't have pink hair, not that that was a bad thing, but it was a thing. Really, it was the ears that made her cute.

"So how do you know about his place?"

Blake sighed again and looked at him, receiving a look that told her he knew why she knew about it, but not how she knew about it. "A former mentor of mine controls this section of the White Fang," she told him quietly. "He brought me to this place a few times when I was still a member of the White Fang. It's sort of a main base of operations' for the higher ups that control Vale's White Fang group. Only the bigwigs can come here."

That made sense. This place was sort of out in the middle of nowhere and guarded by only a few dozen members of the White Fang. Naruto hadn't had time to question them and when they were all knocked out, he created clones to monitor them and act as working guards. What Blake didn't know was that he was taking two of them to Ozpin to let him do whatever he wanted with them. They were terrorists so by Konoha law, they'd be killed after getting all the information they wanted out of them. But this wasn't Konoha, so the rules might not work like that.

They crawled for another ten minutes before the building was close enough for them to touch. Blake poked her head out of the brush to look around before giving him the all clear. The lights were on inside and she made sure that Adam wasn't going to be here today by monitoring their respective communication lines. If they hadn't changed up their codes then he was having another rally today and working as a security officer to ensure that what happened last time didn't happen again.

Carefully the two approached the wooden cabin and moved to the door. Naruto blinked upon seeing it. It wasn't like the locks back at Beacon. This was something else. A key would obviously be needed to be inserted into the door to open it, but there was also a keypad on the door meant for some form of combination lock. This was where he felt stupid, as he had never come across something like this. He could pick a lock, but not an electronic lock.

Blake opened her scroll and wirelessly logged in to it with something on her scroll. Naruto turned away from her and started watching for enemies. A moment later he heard her scroll buzz and the lights on the keypad turned green. Naruto stepped up and started picking the lock. It was a ten second process and upon getting it done, Blake made a gesturing towards their attire. If anyone was using it to sleep right now and they woke up to their presence, questions would be asked and blood would fly. Naruto touched her and she felt his power warp over her.

Looking down, she found that not much had truly changed. She wore the standard White Fang outfit. She touched her neck to make sure the collar was still there. If she ran in to any old friends, she wanted to make sure that they couldn't recognize her voice, so the collar worked as a voice changer. Anything else about her new outfit she was currently blind to with the exception of what Naruto did to himself. He gave himself the same look, but sported a pair of fox ears on his head and covered up his entire face with a Grimm Fox mask that sported four red eyes. Blake was unsure if there was a fox-type Grimm in the world, but if there was one, she doubted it'd have four eyes.

Both of them moved inside and started looking around the room. Blake made haste to the back room where a single terminal was. She plugged her scroll into the port and started copying files on it. Naruto hovered over, leaving a clone on the roof to monitor them as their operation went down. His clone about was now becoming more useful than it was when he was back in the Elemental Nations. Why had no one told him about their other creative uses? Did they not know or not care enough to tell him? He was banking on not carrying to tell him.

A fresh memory hit him hard and he turned to the door as he backed up. "Blake, we got company."

She looked at him with a look of disbelief behind her mask. The door opened and in stepped a man that sent chills through her very being. He had red hair, black horns on the front of his head, wore a half mask that covered his eyes, and wore all black and red. Blake's heart skipped a beat in both fear and longing. _Adam… What are you doing here?_

Adam sighed and then noticed them in the corner of the room. Blake had turned her back to him and was hard at work on downloading what they needed. Naruto just stood there, unsure of what to do or who this person was. "New recruits?" Adam asked.

"No," Naruto said, finally turning to face him. Blake kept working and from the way she tensed at his arrival, didn't like the idea of fighting Adam, as it wouldn't be easy and she had no desire to challenge her former mentor either. "We were asked to get some information for the Vacuo Branch." He glanced over his shoulder at Blake as she continued to work on the terminal.

"Vacuo? What does Wilhelm want with our information?"

 _So he's still in charge?_ Blake wasn't sure if Adam was playing her to get information or being honest. He had always been hard to read when it came to business talk. It was all half-truths and white lies with him. "We were ordered not to give any information out. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, Mr. Taurus." Her voice was distorted by the collar she wore. She hoped it was enough. 

Adam begrudgingly moved away from them and let them continue their work in peace. Blake's mind screamed warnings as she hurriedly began watching the download take place. It couldn't move any slower if it wanted to. That much was clear as she watched the numbers morph every few seconds. It was like watching water boil at this point. Only she had to get the water boiling before the ultimate killer caught wind of their lie and attempted to butcher them. Her only solace in any of this was that she remembered all the methods for getting into the place and out of…

 _Oh no!_ She glanced cautiously to the door. Adam hadn't checked the lock like he was supposed to. When an agent enters, they leave a key in the door to show proof of their power and access. Only those with them could gain entrance to this place or any of the other safe houses in the area. They didn't gave a key to get in here, meaning that if Adam turned and looked at the door, they'd been done in pretty quick.

The download finished and she got up stiffly. Naruto blinked and watched Adam return from another room with a bowl of something. "Leaving already?" he asked, sounding confused on their short stay. "Wilhelm can't be that uptight anymore."

"I wish we could stay and speak further, but duty does call." She gave a light bow and forced Naruto to do the same. "It was honor meeting you." Adam tilted his head in a confirming manner and saw them out. The moment the door shut, Blake ran. Naruto followed. Not a few short seconds later the door was reduced to splinters and Adam stormed out holding his sword. No need for a disguise, Naruto dispelled his illusion and scooped up Blake as a few clones dropped from the air to hold him off. "Don't kill him," Blake pleaded. Naruto sighed and made a clone and then destroyed to make sure the others got the message.

"Why?"

"He's like Iruka to me."

No more words were needed. Naruto understood fully. But damn if this didn't complicate things. Ozpin wouldn't be happy about this. He had a good chance to take out their leader by way of kidnap or execution and Blake was playing role model. It cut deep, but Naruto was more than willing to give her this one… for now.

(-)

"So let me get this straight. This weekend, Port is taking Naruto hunting for reasons you don't want to divulge to me because it has something to do with class? Do I understand this right?"

Ozpin might have laughed at how Sasuke worded his question, but was willing to wait until he was gone. It wasn't like working with Port was hard. Tune the man out and you were right as rain if you knew what you were doing. Thankful, Naruto was more than capable of doing that. And after Port's last attempt to capture another Grimm for whatever studies he was conducting in class, Ozpin was willing to buy Naruto's services again, to which Naruto had already agreed upon. So yes. He was sending Naruto out into the Emerald Forest to hunt down and capture a few Grimm to bring back for study.

"Yes I am."

"Why?"

"Port had an unsuccessful attempt last weekend, and while I'm not questioning his skills as a Huntsman, it was clear that he might need some aid. When presented with the offer, Naruto took the request and has made Port very happy on the matter. Doctor Oobleck will be joining them as well, if that makes you feel any better."

 _No. No it does not._ Sasuke would never admit that out loud, but when throwing one hyperactive individual with another hyperactive individual – Arguably a hyperactive individual to some. – the result never panned out well for anyone. This was probably why Kiba and Naruto weren't paired up, aside from the obvious reason of said blond being a dead last and needing to have two people round out the team that could cover for his flaws… All of them. But Professor Port was a boastful man that was either a famed liar or a man with a bigger ego than Sasuke could give him credit for, while Doctor Oobleck was a fast paced intellectual that would surely drive Naruto straight up a tree with how fast he talked and how many big words he was prone to using. Honestly, without a dictionary in his scroll, Sasuke was sure that he wouldn't know half the words Oobleck said or their meaning.

But the job was already accepted, so he couldn't do anything. And the idea of a student having anything to do with their lesson plan, while also taking a job before being a huntsman, was unreasonable and wrong. Sure, if the city was bombarded with Grimm right now, they could go to its defense and no one would think twice about a few teenagers going on a rampage in fighting Grimm to a bloody end. But let Sasuke go with Port on a hunt to capture something for their tests or just a random experiment in class, and that would be wrong.

"Is that all?" Ozpin asked, sensing an end to their quieter conversations. Honestly, since Naruto woke up, he had heard Sasuke yell more times than he had when he was still sleeping in the hospital. Now as soon as something bad might be happening to Naruto, he got all defensive like he was his older brother. This was rather cute, when one stepped back and looked at it. And if you knew them like how Ozpin knew them, or their backstory at least, it was very funny to him. Two boys that wanted to understand each other were now thrust into their world and finding out that their rivalry was just as equally stupid as the idea that somehow they were blood related. At least Sasuke was technically older than him so he could play the big brother role.

Gritting his teeth, the former Uchiha closed his one eye in thought. He had a bunch of questions he wanted to ask him, but they could wait for a later day. "No." Sasuke turned and walked away. Ozpin smiled behind his mug as the door shut and the raven haired youth vanished.

As soon as the doors of the elevator opened, Sasuke found himself wanting to scream. He didn't like that Naruto was going back out on another job after he'd get back from town today. His "date" with Blake was nothing but a farce and the worst thing about it was that both had been smart enough to know that it was a lie. Naruto had lied to him and Sasuke had acted as though he believed him. Blake's lie had gone over smoothly with her team as far as Sasuke could see. He didn't feel the need to worry them about such a small detail as who went where with who. If Blake wanted to run a secret operation with Naruto, that was her business. If he team found out, then it would be _their_ business. The only reason Sasuke didn't do or say anything was because he knew that deep down, Naruto would doing this for Ozpin. He wasn't doing this to get into Blake's pants, and if he was, good on him.

But the whole thing just rubbed Sasuke the wrong way. Perhaps it was his own immaturity on the matter. He couldn't look at the world from a different perspective like how Ozpin could. Perhaps Naruto saw it in that same light? It was unlikely, but the thought was charming all the same.

"You look annoyed."

Sasuke slowly glanced to his left and spied Weiss. The heiress was paying more attention to his Scroll than she was him, yet she still managed to walk in perfect sync with him while avoiding other students as she walked.

"Long day," he said with a huff. Not entirely true. He had listened to Persia complain all day about not being signed up for the tournament. Sasuke wished he could just tell them that the last tournament he fought in was enough for a life time, but alas, he couldn't. He could sure as hell complain all day with Naruto, Ozpin, Glynda, James, and now Blake, but not anyone else. Was it wrong that he wanted someone else to confide in? Weiss didn't keep an open mind. So she was out of the running, which was also the same for the other two members of team RWBY.

Weiss snorted in disbelief. Sasuke rolled his eye and wondered if he could hypnotize her to just leave him alone. He would have done it if it wasn't for the fear of doing it wrong or her somehow remembering what he did to her. Lucky for him she wasn't eager to just up and ask more questions as she moved on to a more understandable topic. "So Blake let Naruto take her out to dinner." He could feel the unpleasant tone in her voice. Weiss was a smart girl but damn if she wasn't stupid sometimes. "I thought you said you'd talk to him about that."

"I did talk to him about it." He paused in his step as a thought hit him. If Naruto was out with Blake right now, what were they doing? Was that what she was about to get at? He hoped not. He didn't need Blake jumping down his throat later on, or Naruto for that matter. He could handle the white haired teen, but no one else when he was trying to do the jumping at the time. As soon as that blond idiot was back, he drilling him for details on what really happened. "And before _you_ jump the gun, know that whatever they do is still legal."

"Oh!" She looked up from her Scroll, her eyes now thoroughly fixed on him as she turned to give him her full attention. "And why would you say that, hmm?"

Rising to the challenge, Sasuke crossed his arms, his eye narrowed into a tiny slit. "If Blake chooses to date Naruto, that's her thing. And since the age gap isn't that much, it won't be seen as anything illegal. I checked. So back off and shut up. Besides, the idiot is too stupid to see the signs. Believe me, I'd know. I watched him get rejected by girls all the time." Lying about that aside, Sasuke stood by his words. Naruto was too stupid to see the signs that a girl liked him without having it practically bashed into his head. Hinata were fine examples of this. He was ignorant to the shy girl in favor of the girl with a brain. Hinata made good grades too, damn it.

"She's a Faunus," Weiss told him flippantly.

That damn Schnee logic was something she still clung too, even now after seeing some students of different ethnic backgrounds and races date. There was a cat boy that was dating a human boy here. He never saw her going off about that. But if it's her teammate and his questionably best friend, that was _soo_ wrong and shouldn't be done. Sasuke honestly wondered if she was that much of a prude to flip out if Yang and Blake started dating or it Ruby suddenly understood love and went after her as well. What would she do? Deny it and freak out? He'd pay money to see that. Not the sex, cause obviously that wouldn't come to pass, but the ensuing argument sure as hell would.

"Wow," Sasuke clapped, graduating her on her less than pleasing form of racism. "If they get together and you try to break them apart, I'll break you." He started walking again, his anger slowly rising on the subject.

"And what makes you think that you can break me?" She stormed up to him and jabbed him in the back. Sasuke stopped and turned on her, his finger pointed right at her noise, nearly touching. She swatted his hand away and said, "It's wrong."

"Is it wrong for a black person to love a white person?" He asked finally, his anger now at its peak. What was her logic? Where did she draw the line in the sand? At what point with her was something not wrong? He questioned this about her once, but never vocalized it. He could see his family in her: So proud of their blood and their eyes. To marry out of the Uchiha clan was frowned upon if you had the Sharingan. That shit had to stay in the family. No one should have rights to that but them. If you didn't unlock it, you could marry whomever you wanted. Sasuke had long since garnered the suspicion that her family worked along the same line.

Taken aback by his statement, she snorted and jabbed him twice in the chest. "For your information, I believe that that form of a relationship is okay. Marry whomever you want, but humans marry humans and not anyone else." 

"So what's your take gay marriage?"

"It's wrong."

"Really?" He turned and started walking. He wished someone from the Yamanaka clan was here. He remembered hearing stories from Itachi about their powers. He would love to see them rework Weiss's mind and make her into a Faunus loving lesbian. It'd be funny and well worth the watch. It'd destroy her entirely, but at this point, for the time being, he didn't care. He'd do it himself if he wasn't too fearful on the idea of her snapping out of it and trying to kill him. "You should keep an open mind, Weiss. The world is changing and if you don't change with it, you're left behind."

"I'm more than aware of that." Her eyes darkened. She had long sense made the desire to not be like her father. When he spoke, he demanded people listen. When he wanted something, it was not later, but now. She only took up singing as a way to better herself and provide potential avenues for her career path later on in life. But he sought to take advantage of such talents and made demands in the form of requests for her to follow through with. He did not ask you to do something with the intent of not doing it. He _demanded_ you do it and expected it done regardless of your wishes.

"Then start acting like it. If they wanna be together, let them. Stop hounding them about something that doesn't matter." Sasuke stopped and scratched his head, his rage finally leaving him. "You wouldn't happen to know if Port is doing any strange lessons again with Grimm next week, would you?"

Weiss looked away, unhappy at a potential repeat of their first day in class with Port. The man might know his stuff, but damn if he wasn't annoying. His story telling had to be nothing but lies and slander with a small amount of truth behind it. If he was planning something involving Grimm and he went out to catch it, she'd be surprised. These teachers might be skilled Huntsman, but at the end of the day, she saw them as people behind a desk more than people out on the frontline doing what was required of _normal_ Huntsman that risked their lives to do what needed to be done. She hadn't heard of a single teacher leaving to take a job because they had to.

"I haven't heard anything," she confessed. Sasuke started walking. She kept pace with him. "Why? Do you know something?"

"I know Ozpin bought Naruto's service again for another job, but this one is with Port." He momentarily wondered if those were the correct words to use. What other services had Ozpin bought from Naruto that the students might know about? Being a teachers' aid was obviously pushing it, but there wasn't many other things they could know about. Weiss didn't seem to pick up on the meaning behind his words as she examined her nails. Sasuke wondered if that was her of showing disinterest or trying to understand something she didn't get right away. "They're going out to Emerald Forest to find more Grimm for us."

She shuddered. "Pass," she exclaimed unhappily. Sasuke laughed and she glared at him. "I don't see you making anything of his lessons. If we have to face a Grimm in his class room, I hope you're fighting it."

"Why?" He was dressed in his casual clothing. Outside of school and combat, he didn't have much need for the wears of today. He stuck to simple thing, like a black t-shirt and tan cargo shorts. If he could have worn open toed sandals like what he was used to wearing and his arms warmers, you could beat your bottom lien he'd be wearing them right now. But, sadly due to his fight with Naruto when they arrived, all of those clothing were now destroyed. Didn't help that their previous fights had ruined most of his clothing too. Shame that Coco was gone. She'd get him something good to wear for events like today.

"I just want to see how you handle that kind of a situation. Since here lately all I've seen you do is train and fight against Naruto."

That was very true. Sasuke had originally been fighting his whole team in an attempt to improve his skills before Naruto awoke. Now that the blond was up and about, he could get an actual challenge out of training. But then his Semblance surfaced and Naruto's need for more chakra control and abilities started to surface. And now with Naruto running off to do God knows what for Ozpin, it was putting a strain on anything they could do. It was almost as if Ozpin was forcing him to work with the others instead of Naruto. 

Not that Naruto truly needed his help anymore. If he did have his parents in his head somewhere, they could help him all the same. Maybe Naruto could learn his fathers' signature ability, the Haraishin no Jutsu. If Naruto could learn that then… well no one would able to beat him. Naruto was already growing in leaps and bounds thanks to their time together. But he feared for the world because of Kyuubi. Could they actually handle an outbreak from him? He doubted it. Not when he had those clones to help him figure stuff out as well.

"Speaking of training, do you wanna help me get more control over my Semblance?"

"What's in it for me?"

"I'll help you deal with Jaune."

"Deal!" A few days alone from that guy would do her wonders. Maybe she could focus more on Neptune without him butting in and being random.

(-)

Ruby watched Yang pace through their room with her thumb in her mouth as she furiously bit the end of it. "Calm down. I'm sure nothing bad has happened."

Yang gave her sister a red eyed warning that she didn't care what she thought right now. Blake wasn't back from her date with Naruto yet. Weiss was off training with Sasuke to further control his Semblance. She wasn't okay with either of those, as she had just been told that they were now in charge of getting the dance party together. With team CVFY out, they were now stepping up to the plate for an event that was meant for the students from all _**FOUR**_ Kingdoms. If she did something wrong, it'd be on her head.

Yang could take a lot pride in the fact that she was a party animal. She liked going to parties. But she never actually hosted one. That was her problem. But for someone like Weiss, that wasn't much of a problem. Weiss went to a lot of formal events and even hosted them before. So she was right with her thinking that perhaps she could learn a thing or two from the Schnee. But there was the little problem with how Blake had been acting recently that was starting to rub her the wrong way. Sure, Blake had always been secretive, but that had been for a good reason. She was a Faunus, pretending to be a normal human, and had a former allegiance to the White Fang, a criminal organization that was trying to either kill all humans or simply overthrow the government to establish their world order.

That was a good reason to keep secrets, but a bad reason at the same time.

But since Blake had been acting strange, Yang had decided to sit and wait for her to open up and explain what was wrong. Since that hadn't happened yet, and their team was now in charge of making the entertainment for the dance, Yang could safely say that she had a right to be anger over the whole thing. Add in hormones and you had a pretty good cocktail for raging female teen. It wasn't every day that anyone could say they went from two major battles and heavy lectures to being told they were now in charge of a formal and popular event that would either make or break her career as a lover of all forms of parties.

Content with the fact that her sister was now back to doing her homework, Yang resumed her pacing and thinking on the whole thing: Namely why Blake would openly lie to her.

Yang was no stranger to a lie. She told a bunch as a kid. She told one yesterday to Ruby when the subject of who ate her last cookie came into question. She was asked if she did it and she simply said that she hadn't and pawned the blame off on Weiss. Weiss had yet to forgive her or come to any terms with Yang on the subject, but that wasn't what she was really fretting over. Yang knew that Blake was going out with Naruto to run an operation against the White Fang. Why didn't she go and tail them? Well simply put, Ruby had no idea that Blake had lied. Weiss hadn't thought Ruby was ignorant to it until it was too late, and now it was clear that even if they did tell her, nothing good would come of it. They had no idea where Blake went and they had no idea if she was okay. Yang had thought about calling her, but the fear of giving away their position to an enemy was stopping her. Plus, with all the time they spent together, not once had she heard of her putting her Scroll on silent. It went off a few times in class.

So instead of running around town in the middle of the night, she favored staying up and pacing back and forth until their Faunus teammate returned for her ass chewing.

Eventually the door was gently opened, earning the jeering eyes of the sisters. Weiss entered with a scowl on her face as Jaune was hauled off by an irate Sasuke. A few scratched adored his face from what Yang could see before the door was shut and she got a good look at Weiss. The white haired teen sported a few bruises that were slowly healing and a nasty cut on the side of her leg that was already nothing but a small scratch. Aura healing at its finest, but medical treatment was still needed, and Weiss was obviously aware of it as she went to the bathroom to get some medical supplies.

"So what'd you two do?" Weiss glared at Yang from inside the bathroom as she took off her heels and soaks before raising her leg to the sink. Yang's eye twitched at seeing Weiss ignore her in favor of treating her injury. "You have a big fight?"

"We were training to get his Semblance under better control," she hissed out. Whether it was from the ointment or her own anger at her delicate skin being tarnished by yet another scar was unknown. Yang decided that it was the ointment and stepped inside the bathroom. "Did I tell you that you could enter?"

"Do you want some help with that, Ice Queen?" She lowered her leg and gave her a withering glare. Yang brushed it off and sat her down to help give her first aid. Weiss looked away and stared at her own reflection in the mirror for a few minutes until Yang had finished. "So what was the fight about?"

"None of your business."

Yang furrowed her brow. Weiss normally had a lot of anger behind her when she fought with her words. But today they sounded less heated. It was like the fight had simply taken the energy for anger out of her system. Yang wondered if she could throw Weiss at Sasuke more often.

"Is it wrong for a human to love a Faunus?" Yang dropped the medical box and turned sharply to her teammate. Weiss was still looking at something in the mirror. The golden haired beauty knew her gaze was directed to something else or somewhere else far away from here. "Naruto and Blake might have a thing."

Ruby squealed in delight but Yang shut the door and locked it before she could get inside to pepper her with questions. Ruby could be heard moaning from the other side as she slinked back to her desk to finish her homework. Weiss didn't say anything, but her gaze drifted back to Yang and for moment Yang understood that she was in yet another stage of her life where her reality had been warped by something.

Sitting down on the rim of the tub, Yang nodded and said, "This isn't just about Naruto and Blake, is it?" Weiss nodded and looked down at her feet for a fraction of a second. Her eyes then danced to Yang's as the blonde beauty smirked. "I assume that you're asking this question because of your upbringing." 

"…I wouldn't just say that, but yes. When I was training with Sasuke he said that I couldn't use that as an excuse. He said it was a copout."

"It's not really a copout," Yang confessed. Her eyes glazed over for a moment and for only a split second Weiss saw her become a woman faraway from here and reliving a moment of pain. The moment passed quickly and Yang smiled sadly. "If you're raised to believe one thing and told that over and over again, it is the truth to you and anything else is a lie." Her fingers drummed along the edge of the tub. "When I was little I had a friend that lived with an abusive father. Dad ended up putting a stop him, but the damage was already done. Two days later at school I found out he was dead and my friend was gone forever. We weren't exactly close, but that's not the point here. You see, I didn't know it at the time, but her father had been abused as well as a child. But more to the point, his father had abused his mother and killed her later on in life. So the son grew up thinking that women were objects and nothing else. If they disobeyed, you had a right to hit them. So the son eventually married and treated his wife the same, because his father told him that woman are objects and if they don't do what they're told, you hit them to make them understand."

"That's awful."

"That's life. Without taking in all the facts, you're left with one story and that one story can shape you. I can't say that he did wrong because that was all he ever knew. So I assume that with you, you were taught that humans marry humans. Faunus marry Faunus. Boy dates girl. That kind of stuff." Weiss nodded regrettably. Her father would never allow such a thing in his family to exist like that. If she brought home a Faunus boy, she'd either be disowned or re-educated by her father after the boy "disappeared" one night. "I know that we're all from different backgrounds. Ruby and I grew up in a small town in Patch and everything has always been great with us. That doesn't mean we don't have hard times. We lost our mom, so we've experienced loss. But that loss made us stronger. It destroyed our dad, but we made up for it by being there for him. Because we knew that deep down, our mom would do the same."

"So what… I should support their relationship?" Yang shrugged. Weiss frowned. "I still don't like the idea of it."

"If Ruby walked through that door right now and professed her love to you; what would you do?"

"Call her a dolt!"

"And hurt in the process." Weiss huffed in annoyance. "I know you have a luxurious background with your family upbringing and that probably makes you hard to be approached by people that know about your status in life and your power. But just because you were taught one thing, doesn't mean that other people were taught the same. You should try to see it from their perspective or at least make the effort to understand why they do what they do. I won't lie, I've dreamed about being with other women before, but I want my first time to be with a man. That's sort of what experimenting is, but I think that's pushing it a bit for us. So how about you just agree right now to never bring up the subject again and take the time to understand both of them a little bit better. Who knows, maybe you'll see that it's not a half bad relationship in the end. I mean, who else is going to put up with Blake being, well, Blake?"

The Schnee chuckled. "You got me there."

"That's the spirit. Now come on. Let's get out of here before Ruby starts to lose her mind." The door was thrown open and Ruby rushed Weiss to figure out what was going on between Naruto and Blake. Yang smiled at the naïve nature of her sister before looking outside and seeing Blake walk up with Naruto. _So where did you two go…_

(-)

"You didn't have to carry me."

"Why?"

Blake gave him a sour look. No sooner had they escaped Adam's forces, Naruto demanded answers on the questionable safety of a roof in the center of town. Blake wasn't too keen on the idea, but seeing how Naruto wasn't going to let her go, she relented and explained her past relationship with the man. To Naruto, Adam was not like Iruka. But Blake still saw him as such and found it hard to deal with him. On one hand he could see what she meant. To her, Adam was a man that was a mentor and her partner. He worked with her and formed a bond that Naruto wished he'd formed with the members of Team Seven back in the day.

But that didn't excuse him for what he did, and no matter how Blake saw him, he was no Iruka. He was a killer and a man trying to overthrow the governments of the world. His group brought about great fear and panic. If Naruto had simply ignored her, he could have ended him there and cut down a significant portion of the White Fang's power. And all he had to do was disobey her.

The very thought made him want to puke. Kakashi's words, the only words he'd ever spoken that left a clear and powerful ring in him, kept coming through to him. _"Those who break the rules are trash. But those that abandon their friends are worse than trash."_ Killing Adam and disobeying Blake would have been the same as abandoning her to him. He couldn't do it. Not then. Maybe not with her present. But if found that man alone in a dark alley, he'd be dead without a second thought.

"Well for one thing," her eyes danced up to her rooms' window. Naruto looked up and blinked. He could see a tiny dot of gold in the window beside a dot of red and white. Obviously her team was now aware they had returned their "date" and were waiting for information on how it went. "I'd rather not have them thinking we did what they think we'll have done."

"You're still covered in mud," Naruto pointed out. Blake looked down at her current self and sighed. How would she explain that? What restaurant would Naruto have taken them too, on a sunny day without rain for the past few weeks, that she could get covered in mud? She'd give him one point for that, but he was in a similar state and both had to go take showers. With her team up, she couldn't sneak in and get her clothing without being seen. So that left very few options unless she wanted to try and sneak her way into the girls' showers in the locker room and then try to sneak back to her room in her undergarments without being caught. "Come over and take a shower at my place. I'll send a clone to go get some of your clothes."

"Just do that henge thing on me to make me appear like I'm not covered in mud."

"Can't take away the smell." She sighed in defeat. Her pleading look made it clear that if he went, he'd see something she didn't want him to see. "Fine, I'll go myself and explain that you had an accident you don't to explain about your clothing. That way, if you want to, you can avoid the whole thing. Or you can just take a shower at my place, I put the henge on you anyways after you've taken a shower, and you go back while leaving your clothes with me."

"I'll be walking around naked, but under a disguise that I'm not." She was trying to make sure she that understood that right. Naruto took off his shirt, dropped it, made a seal, and suddenly had the same shirt, without mud, covered his bare chest. "Fine…" she relented with a sigh of defeat. At least he was being nice about this. And if worst came to worst, she could totally kick his ass. He was genetically forced to let women beat him up, or so it seemed with his stories he'd shared so far. Either that or they were just really strong.

Smiling, Naruto picked her up again and used Shunshin to get to his room before she could protest. With cat-like grace she landed on her feet after only being in his arms for a second once again and looked around in a daze. _Damn him and his ninja abilities._ Naruto pointed to the bathroom and she hurriedly moved to it. As soon as she had the door locked, not that she figured it'd do any good, she pulled out her Scroll, turned the water on, and started pilfering through the stolen files. As soon as the first one was opened her Scroll buzzed and the words became scrambled. _Someone's hacking in to it!_ She powered her Scroll down, but knew that the damage had already been done. _Who could have hacked my Scroll?_ She could safely rule out Naruto, as he had no idea on how their technology worked, something he admitted to her before their operation even started.

Deciding to make quick on what little time she had, she stripped down and jumped in the shower. It was best to get this over quickly or face the unyielding questions from Yang and Weiss. She hoped Ruby would be asleep and forget about this by morning.

(-)

"So did she get anything good?"

Ozpin looked up from his terminal to find Naruto standing with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed on the man. Ozpin nodded and considered showing him but decided not to. Naruto might not understand it all, but he had already painted a good picture on what he brought back. Whether it could be used against them was a different thing entirely, but Naruto had brought him two great presents today in the form of the information that he managed to snag from Blake's Scroll and the two White Fang members that were now in their custody.

Lacing his fingers together, Ozpin nodded. "They had detailed plans on a few operations concerning the weapons that they have already stolen and will be stealing a few weeks. They're gearing up for a big operation soon, but what they seem to know is limited. They make refrences to someone by the name of Queen. So this clinches it. They are working together." Naruto rolled his eyes. He wasn't up to speed with their problem, but he knew enough to know that Queen was a serious threat to them. "How did the operation go?"

"About as well as I could have expected… I've never taken a job like that without someone over me telling me what to do. This was just the two of us working together and utilizing our skills to get through any terrible situation we faced, which wasn't much." Unfolding his arms, Naruto got closer to the desk and said, "Who is Adam Taurus?"

The Headmaster blinked in surprise. Leaning back in his chair, he said, "He's a radical that changed what the White Fang is today. I know that you probably aren't fully aware, but they were once a peace loving group that was meant to bridge the gap between humans and Faunus. But somewhere along the line a new group took over as head of the White Fang and he started appearing at terrible acts of violence. At first they were seen as acts of self-defense, but eventually it was moved up to planned attacks and sabotage against dust shipments. But as of late he's been leading large scale operations against the SDC and any store that sells dust at jacked up prices to Faunus or pay Faunus less for their services."

"So I should have killed him when I had the chance?" That sounded about right for him.

"As simple as it would be to kill him and simply move on, I don't like the idea of putting him down without a chance for talk. I know that's wrong to think like that, but I do believe that we could talk to him peacefully and hope to resolve this. But should he test my patience any longer, I will move against him. So you not killing him gives him another chance to sit down for talks. But should he act out against us again, I do give you permission to kill him." Naruto's eyes narrowed and for a moment, Ozpin wondered if his words were in the wrong to him. Did Naruto simply not like the idea of being talked to like that or did he not like the idea of talking to the man?

The blond rubbed his eyes and shook his head as though he had a silent conversation with someone or something not present. "If it's okay with you, I'd like to go to bed. I have that job with Port in the morning."

"Well until then," Ozpin reached under his desk and pulled out a few lien cards, "consider this a portion of the payment. You'll receive the rest tomorrow."

Taking the money, Naruto sighed and nodded his thanks. "I'll talk to you to tomorrow." With a single hand sign he disappeared in a swirl of wind and leaves. Ozpin smiled. He wished he could do that.


	24. Operation Puppy Dog

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

This story is entirely fan-made and fictional. Any acts that you might find offensive, disguising, inhuman, wrong or just don't like, we are not liable for. You are reading this story of your own free will and not being forced, if you don't like something we are not forcing you to stay and read it. Please leave the page and re-frame from reading the chapter and or story. All Copyrighted Characters belong to their respect owners. We don't claim anything that is not our own creation and are merely using them for fan made material.

We accept constructive criticize and help but being rude and disrespectful will not be tolerated. This is done for the fun of writing not to make every little person happy, while making people happy with are stories is great we are not here for Money, Fame or Fortune this is done for the simply joy of writing.

Chapter 23

"How do you keep doing that?"

Port's question was answered with a shrug from Naruto as he, too, had no idea on how he had accomplished such an amazing and mind boggling feat. If they knew Naruto well enough, they'd know that making something possible out of something impossible was one of his incredible talents. Either that or he was just insanely lucky. Not many people could accomplish what he did, powers included.

"This is most intriguing!" _Doctor_ Oobleck informed the duo as he furiously scribbled down notes in his notepad like a scholar with a new idea. Naruto blinked while watching him write, momentarily feeling a pain of guilt as watching the good Doctor write reminded him of his now former master, Jiraiya. He wondered what he was doing at this very moment. "Perhaps you are simply not threatening to the little Grimm." Oobleck theorized.

Naruto looked down at his left hand where he held a tiny ball of black fur and small pieces of white armor across its face and arms. In his hand he held a tiny Ursa. The thing was beyond tiny. It was small enough that Naruto could safely say it was a rat. And what made this odd sighting even stranger was that Naruto had not only managed to capture the thing, but he'd successfully done it four times for their hunt for more Grimm.

With Oobleck here, Port's idea of a hunt had gone completely astray. For Port, the idea of this hunt was to capture and kill as many Grimm as possible, something that they had managed to accomplish, mind you. But with Oobleck, it was something else as well. He wanted to put trackers on the Grimm they caught that Professor Port saw no reason to keep. Under normal circumstances this wouldn't be done. Port would shoot the creature dead, stand heroically on it, take a photo, and then move on. The man was that egotistical and probably more of a hunter for sports rather than protection at times.

That wasn't to say that they hadn't done anything productive, even with both teachers arguing about who could do what, when, where, and why. Oobleck was very thorough in his demands for putting trackers on certain types of Grimm. Emerald Forest was a large place and very hard to keep tabs on where various types of Grimm nested. If you wanted to send in Hunters to destroy a nest, you had to first find the nest. Sometimes the best approach would be to capture and release a Grimm with a tracker on it and then vacate the area in the hopes that it wouldn't follow after you and then just head back to its nest so that you could rush in and destroy it.

Normally the idea of putting a tracker on a Grimm was considered suicide unless you were very fast or had it detained well enough that you could put it on without problem. With Naruto, that idea was completely thrown out the window. Naruto would just create a few clones to hold it down and then send one or two clones over with tracking collars to put on it. If they died, no one but the clones would die and they could simply start over. It was the ultimate win-win.

Looking at the tiny Grimm in his hands, Naruto looked back at the two stunned teachers as Port moved beside him, Scroll held out in preparations for a selfie, as he said, "So this little pain is not scared of me?" to which Oobleck nodded, though looking only slightly fearful of what that could mean for future spawns of the Grimm. The flash went off as Naruto looked back down at the creature and the white collar that was wrapped around its little neck. "You know," he began, his eyes twinkling with mischief, "if this thing wasn't supposed to be some sort of end all creature kind of monster, I'd take it home with me."

"That would be most unwise."

"I know, Oobleck, but I'm saying that if they _weren't_ like that." Naruto rolled his hand over to look at the belly of the little Grimm in his hand. It purred when he started scratching its belly. "So does this mean that when we go back to Beacon, Fuzzbutt might show back up?"

 _He named it!_ Port almost laughed at how funny the name was and the fact that Naruto was naming the disgusting and disappointing creature he had wanted to hunt. By god, if he could take that thing before his class, he was sure that everyone would want to challenge it. But the idea of something that small getting out was enough to scare him into not doing so. The bigger ones wouldn't be harder to find. But a small little Grimm like that in their school and they'd have problems.

"If it does, it'll die instantly." Port confessed, his finger reaching around for the trigger on his gun. A small cough alerted him that he was being watched while the oblivious blond returned his gaze to a more noticeable problem. "Well we only have three captured Grimm," he confessed sadly. "So we're back out hunting for another hour until we can capture at least another two."

Naruto nodded and promptly threw Fuzzbutt into the forest. The little Grimm disappeared from sight and was most likely making its trip back to them. Naruto clapped his hands together to get rid of the "germs" that Oobleck had warned him about in the forest. He didn't know where Fuzzbutt had been. The only reason he was holding it him was because if he didn't, Port was going to step on the little guy. "But the traps aren't ready. And I don't know if you've noticed, but they're avoiding us now."

"That just makes the hunt more thrilling!" Port exclaimed, his mustache shuffling as he spoke.

"I have stuff to do today for James."

Port's face might have fell at that reminder. What was worse was that he needed about five Grimm for his next class project and they only had three. To be fair, he probably only had one at this point, but he was really hoping that wasn't the case. Their first hour in the forest they had managed to snag ten Grimm. A mighty haul if they didn't come with their own problems. A captured Grimm would work one of three ways. They would break out and kill you if you were around, simply die in their cage under no cause of harm, or stay in said cage until release to then kill said person. They had managed to capture ten Grimm and now only had three because five of them had escaped and the last two had died in their cages not an hour after being snatched up.

Oobleck put a reassuring hand on Naruto's shoulder as he pointed out into the distance. "Young man, I do believe James will understand if you are a tad bit late. Besides, the hunt for knowledge is never ending and this is a hunt for knowledge."

"I thought we were hunting Grimm?" Naruto's question made Port laugh and Oobleck's face fall. Naruto wasn't doing justice to anyone that said Blondes' weren't dumb. Maybe he just couldn't pick up on the meaning behind his words or that Oobleck had a way around James.

"We are, son. We are. But right now. We need to focus. If we don't find anything in the next thirty minutes, we'll load up what we have and considered the hunt done. Besides, we can continue the hunt tonight if needed. So if you could, please make your clones and let's start the hunt again."

Naruto shrugged and created fifty clones. As one, they charged and bolted off in different directions causing as much noise as possible. The two teachers ran to their respective hiding spots and waited while the whisker faced blond waited for one his clones to relay him the location for a Grimm.

(-)

"This is completely insane."

Blake barely caught the tail end of Sun's retort to someone she didn't care enough to look at. Whatever they were arguing about needed to be done further away from here, perhaps in another room, or another part of the school far away from her. She had things she had to take care of. Like right now she was trying to decipher the new code for the next meeting that the White Fang were getting set up for in Vale. If she could just get five more minutes alone, she'd have it and she could then move on to the more daunting task of figuring out how someone managed to pull nearly _all_ of her captured information on the White Fang that she had gotten during their raid a few days back.

But no one was leaving her alone, and she decided to make the most of it. Sleep deprived not included in her current situation, she did need some background noise to keep her focused on-track. What better form of background noise than to have your friends and team arguing over a game or the next class test that was going on. Apparently, Weiss wasn't too thrilled to learn that Sun's team wasn't having to take a test that the rest of them had in a few hours. To Weiss, it was torture. To Ruby… Well she didn't truly have an opinion on the subject at hand. She was too busy stuffing her face full of strawberries and cookies to really care about what was going on.

Realizing that eventually she'd get roped in on the conversation, Blake stood up and departed while her friends and teammates argued over the ethics of new students showing up and not being forced to take a test. Knowing that she couldn't return to their dorm room for the safety and quiet work place that she needed, and knowing that she couldn't return to another section of the library without Sun somehow founding out, she ventured to guess that Naruto was back and knew full well that she could hide out at his room to do her studying.

Naruto might not share her views on the White Fang, but he did believe that they needed to be stopped before more innocent people were hurt. Though she knew that deep down his methods might be a tad more extreme than her own, it was the fact that he knew about their ventures togethers outside of the academy to stop the White Fang before they became a bigger threat than they currently were. She couldn't change his mind on the notion that they needed to be destroyed, less they bring the world to another great war.

This was something she accepted about him. If the White Fang were allowed to continue on as they were, a terrible war would be fought and she wasn't fooling herself into believing she wouldn't be a part of it. Her parents would most likely step in to stop her, but she would have a duty to uphold as both a Huntress and a former member of the White Fang.

She wrapped her knuckles against his door twice and then a third time after a small pause. Enhanced hearing or not, she could easily make out the sounds of footsteps and a soft groan before the door was slowly pulled open. Naruto was rubbing his left eye and yawning at the same time. "Sup?" he asked, stifling another yawn with his free hand.

Blake moved through the door, holding up her scroll and moving towards his desk. The odd drawings/markings were there still. What were they again? Seals? Maybe she did need _some_ sleep if she was going to keep looking in on this next meeting that they were going to have. If it was tomorrow and she cracked it tonight, she wouldn't have enough time to get geared up, rested, and head out without causing problems to herself and those around her. Maybe after a quick talk she could take a power nap.

"I need a quiet place to work."

Naruto arched a brow in confusion as he shut the door. "I'll make some tea."

(-)

Sasuke chewed on his bottom lip while looking over the study material he had gotten. He didn't want to study for a test, but given that he had was already invested in this lie, he might as well take it all the way. Not that this was a lie to him anyways. At this point it was nothing more than the monotonous road of life for him. He was eager to change his life. Make something new for himself.

But trying to study for a test while his friends argued over something like a game was getting very agitating. It was funny at start, but now it was annoying. And what _was_ the game? It sounded like a stupider version of other board games he'd come to know about back home. Only this one was all about taking over the other Kingdoms. Why make a game like that? It was really strange.

Not that it wasn't strange back home to "play" Shinobi.

Looking back on his life, he wondered if he ever missed out on something like that. He just remembered that at one point in his life he was happy, and then it was taken away and he became, as Coco had once put it, a "Brooding Nancy, with no time for fun," when she first met him. He didn't leave a good impression at start, but damn if he didn't make up for it now.

"How did I lose… Again?!" Sun asked, sounded very unhappy to have lost for the third time in a row to Yang. Ruby, who was sitting off to the side, provided no emotional backup for him as she continued to happily munch on her snacks while the ever patient Pyrrha tried to quell an emotionally crazed Nora out of her rant about how she was Queen of the Pancakes and that no one could stop her rule. "Is the deck stacked in your favor? I demand a reshuffle and a rematch."

"I just have all the luck, Sun." Sun rolled his eyes at that as Yang bent over to grab his deck and start shuffling it. "But I'll take you up on that rematch. I'll shuffle your deck and you can shuffle mine." She winked at him.

"Innuendo or not, that's a trap." Emert warned. He made a whip motioning with his hand as he drew on the sketchpad he had. Neither blond was sure if that was just him drawing or making the general motion for what every person would perceive as a budding relationship with anyone. The media would blow anything out of proportion. "You still studying, Leader?"

Sasuke grumbled at the nickname. "Couldn't you just go back to calling me by my name?"

"Has it been two weeks yet?"

"No."

"Then no."

Sasuke wondered how Emert did what he did. Two hours ago, they had a fun little bet going. It was a game to see who had the most luck with a deck of cards. Honestly, it was easy enough. Sasuke shuffled the deck, scanned it with his Sharingan as he did, passed the deck back, and, with no slight of hands, Emert drew the cards he declared would show up, in order, and won the bet. How he achieved this, Sasuke didn't know. What he did know was that when he scanned the cards with his eye, they were in that order, and somehow, despite logic, Emert pulled the impossible and won the bet.

He was now going to call Sasuke Leader for two weeks or until he grew bored. Whichever happened first, Sasuke was sure that it was going to result in some unsavory combat training with the Faunus, as much as he didn't want it to. Reverting back to his old habits was the greatest fear he had next to losing Naruto, the only true anchor he had back to his old world and the one he was now fighting to keep here. Were all blonds dumb or was it just that hard headed ones. Glynda wasn't dumb. She was a teacher. That had to mean something, right? On that note. He couldn't remember if there were any blond-haired teachers back in Konoha.

 _Way to pay attention, Sasuke. Real smart of you. Genius. Yeah right._ He berated himself and turned the page in his notebook as he continued to study next to Weiss. She was beginning to show signs of losing her mind if her constantly tapping foot was any indication. She was about to flip her lid, and not in a good way. "Problems?" he asked in a whisper. The glare he received was enough to cause the temperature of the room to drop, and not because of his Semblance either. "Sorry," he whispered, sticking his nose back in his book. Honestly, was this what it was like to deal with him in the Academy back home? _I really was an ass._

Weiss eventually shut her book, got to her feet, and stormed off. Ruby watched her leave and trailed after her, intent on finding out what was wrong with her partner/teammate. Sasuke stuck his nose back in his book before hunger hit him and he left as well. No one followed him, either to enthralled in the rematch or too busy studying.

The former Uchiha gave a sigh of frustration as he marched to the cafeteria to get in line and to get his meal. He stopped himself as he grabbed the offered tray when a woman in white marched through the courtyard just nearly out of his sight. She was in the company of James and the man seemed far too eager in whatever conversation he was holding with her. She, in turn, seemed less interested than the good General.

Before he could set the tray down, another teenager got behind him and motioned for him to start walking forward through the line. Sasuke blinked once, his eye narrowing before he moved up to get his food. He could figure that out later.

(-)

"This will be an easy operation." James sat his scroll down and a holographic map appeared over Ozpin's desk. Naruto folded his arms and squinted his eyes at the sight of the map. "One of my operatives will be working with on this one. The entire operation is an intelligence gathering operation. Thanks to the files you retrieved, we know that this is the spot where the White Fang are getting their shipments of weapons and other Atlas technologies. We don't know what they have or how much they have, but we need to know that and what they're doing with it."

"It's pretty clear that whatever they're getting, they're planning to use it here during the Vital Festival. Which is why we're sending you and one of James's Elite's to investigate this," Ozpin confessed. Naruto mulled the world "elite" around in his mind and could only picture and an older Sasuke with a beard. "This mission will be very hard. If you fill the need to back out, I won't hold it against you."

Naruto let his arms fall akimbo. "I'll take the job. I kind of wanna put this guys down before they cause any further problems. But I feel like that time has passed."

"Indeed," James said, cutting off whatever Ozpin was going to say. "The White Fang are dangerous and while they started off small and their actions minor, they have now broken into a full declaration of war. If they aren't stopped soon, we could be looking another great war."

Naruto adjusted the strap on his scabbard as he moved to the elevator. "Does my partner know anything about me?"

"She knows enough to get by. However, I recommend you not do anything out of the ordinary with her. She knows you have a lot of power and unique abilities that we've explained away as magic and mystical arts, but other than that, she doesn't know anything. And just to keep the record clear of any confusion, your codename for this is Syxx. Understand?"

"Why Syxx?" Naruto asked, his head tilted in confusion.

"We don't let operativities choose their own codenames," Ozpin confessed, lying through his teeth on this one. Naruto must not have cared or picked up on it, because he made no move to argue over that. He was probably just happy to get a job right now. He had things he wanted to buy, like more ramen and more orange clothes. It was his money and he was spending it how he wanted to, damnit.

"You'll be working with Hawk. That's her codename." James told him as the blond retreated. "She's waiting for you on the pad." Naruto gave a stiff nod and departed. James shook his head. "You should have let me send in a strike team, Ozpin," he told him as the numbers began to light up, signifying that it was going down. "If I sent in a strike team, we could neutralize the threat to Vale and take back whatever weapons they've stolen from us."

"And if you do that, they'll make martyrs out of the dead. If we send in a team, a small team, we have a chance of finding out what they have, what they don't have, and what they plan to do before it gets too big. And with such a small team, they have a chance to sneak around without problem." Ozpin stood up, his hands gently pressing on the active keyboard as he shut the hologram down. "James, we need to think carefully about or next course of actions. If we make a move too soon, we might be making the wrong one. We have to be slow on this. Otherwise, we risk both our Kingdoms in this. We can't be too hasty."

"But you would send a child to do this? Ozpin, you're playing a dangerous game here."

The old Headmaster smiled. Perhaps he was, but it was for the best.

(-)

"Hawk?"

Winter turned to the sound of the voice and found a small male wearing a black mask over his mouth and nose standing a few paces away from her with his arms crossed. He had blond spiky hair and wore a black mesh suit with a few pieces of armor sewn in on the fabric around his biceps, knees, and chest. A red and a blue eye stared at her, waiting for a reply.

"Yes, I'm Hawk, Syxx. Let's get operation Puppy Dog underway."


	25. Time Off

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

This story is entirely fan-made and fictional. Any acts that you might find offensive, disguising, inhuman, wrong or just don't like, we are not liable for. You are reading this story of your own free will and not being forced, if you don't like something we are not forcing you to stay and read it. Please leave the page and re-frame from reading the chapter and or story. All Copyrighted Characters belong to their respect owners. We don't claim anything that is not our own creation and are merely using them for fan made material.

We accept constructive criticize and help but being rude and disrespectful will not be tolerated. This is done for the fun of writing not to make every little person happy, while making people happy with are stories is great we are not here for Money, Fame or Fortune this is done for the simply joy of writing.

Chapter 24

Sasuke stared out over the horizon as he waited for Weiss and Pyrrha, his Sharingan eye spinning, looking for some sign of Naruto out beyond his range of his vision. Every detail, every small movement was known to him. Nothing could escape his sight that did not live. Even with his power, he wondered, if only for a moment, if this was the truth of power his brother had sought out all those years ago. Was there something more to his eye beyond killing a friend? He hoped not. This power, even if it was the truest way to attain it, was wrong.

"How many fingers am I holding behind my back?"

Sasuke smiled and rose to his feet, his single eye closed. "None," he answered, turning to face his two mentors. Weiss narrowed her eye on him while Pyrrha merely smiled at that little tidbit of information. His eye might be a mystery to some, but that was for another time to them to figure out. "Are we ready to start again…?" He stopped when he caught sight of Jaune walking up behind them, his gaze stuck on the retreating for of Nora and Ren. "You helping out as well?"

Scratching the back of his head, the blond-haired teen stammered out a quick, "No," as he took a seat in the shade of a tree. "I'm just here to watch you in action."

"You're supposed to be meditating," Pyrrha reminded, her smile never leaving her face. Weiss ignored Jaune's quick reply of, "Yes ma'am," as she eyed up Sasuke. "Are you ready to start again?"

"Of course." His red eye returned to its normal onyx color while he took a calming breath. Before he could release it the two girls were on him, weapons at the ready. His Sharingan sprang to life and his hands began to crackle with ice forming over his fingers and clawing its way up his forearms. "Are you sure you want to fight me this close to the edge of the cliff?"

"You'd survive the fall," Weiss informed him, sounding very certain of her belief in his skill. He survived the jump into Emerald Forest. He'd survive a three-hundred-foot fall.

(-)

Winter blinked her eyes as she watched Syxx sharpen his sword with a wet stone. While their pilot worked on keeping them under the radar to their intended location, she was left with the briefing before they got to their mission location. She hoped he was as good as she was lead to believe by James, otherwise she might just have words with him. This was a dangerous operation and she was sticking him with a quiet person that seemed to be only capable of speaking in grunts and nods.

Still, she wanted to make sure he was listening to her.

"Once we land, we'll have new clothes and gear to wear," she lied effortlessly. Naruto stopped long enough to turn his red eye upon her and blink once, and silently ask if she was joking. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "Nice to see you are listening. Repeat the operation back to me, please."

"No." Naruto put away the wet stone. Rising to his feet, he glanced out the side of the bulkhead and over a large forest.

Sighing, Winter regarded Syxx with a withering glare. How was she supposed to work with him if he acted like this? What made him special? She didn't see anything about him that was special. His attitude certainly wasn't.

"The operation is all about intelligence gathering in a base that went dark a few weeks ago after the incident involving your robot that went on a rampage through the city of Vale," Naruto finally recited, his eyes closing. Winter licked her lips. "This base was where a large shipment of weapons was also to have been reported missing and is on the edge of Vale's controlled territory for shelter from the Grimm. Having it go dark is one thing, but a large cache of weapons and stolen tech is warrant for more than a simple drop of the radar." He turned slowly, his blue eye reflecting something akin to sadness as he asked, "Did I miss anything," with only a minor trace of warmth in his voice.

"…No…" Her words were soft.

Syxx almost looked startled by her sudden change in demeanor. Instead he sheathed sword and returned to looking out the opening of the bulkhead.

Winter took a deep breath as she remembered her parting words with Ironwood. Syxx wasn't his real name and while she was no stranger to codenames, it left her wondering why he had the name he had. Was it merely a name chosen for fun because it was misspelled, or was it something else? She didn't know. She knew why she had the codename Hawk.

Syxx adjusted his mask that he kept just over his mouth and nose when he wrinkled his nose or opened his mouth to wide while talking. He'd have to go get something better than what he currently had for this operation. Secrecy of identity and facial recognition was needed. He might not have understood why any of it would matter on him, but James told him that it was needed and while he didn't want to wear one like this, it was better than nothing.

The rest of the trip was done in silence with the occasional question about weapons and tactics being brought up. Winter was very adamant about remaining under the radar and not killing anyone if they could avoid it. Syxx didn't seem to see the problem in killing the threats, as according to James they were nothing more than terrorists that needed to be put down. Winter would have agreed with him whole heartedly if this mission was a search and destroy type. Sadly, it was not. So, she could only placate his desire for destruction by saying that it would only be done if no other option was available.

" _We're approaching the LZ."_ Syxx and Winter both did one final check of their gear as the pilot began to slow the bullhead down and lower the altitude further for an easy jump out. _"Seventeen seconds out. Radio me when you're done and I'll come by for pickup. If I haven't heard back from you in three hours…"_

"Copy that, Four-Seven-Niner," replied Winter, cutting him off before he go further with his statement.

The bulkhead came to a near sudden stop as its' nose jerked upwards and then spun its body around near a small clearing of rocks and trees. In one fluid motion, they jumped and the bulkhead continued its spinning motion to take off for the safety of Beacon.

Winter watched the craft go with a small tinge of concern. Three hours wasn't a lot of time, but it was less than what she had figured they'd give them.

(-)

"I really want to know how you do all of that." Jaune might have been asking more for the sake of his own disbelief to all the crazy things Sasuke could do, along with that of Weiss and Pyrrha. At this point one would have thought that nothing short of insane, god-level, earth rending power should surprise him, but no, the simplest of things still amazed him.

"It's not that hard to do," Sasuke confessed, sounding sure of himself then he did any other time he was asked the same question by his team. He gave his left hand a long glance as ice began to envelope it and slowly form claws and a gauntlet over his flesh. It wasn't cold. Not to him. But to those that touched it, it was the worst thing they'd ever touched and that surprised him given how cold Weiss claimed it to be when she touched a thermometer it. "You two okay?"

Pyrrha offered a short wave as she remained doubled over to catch her breath, either planned or not, directly in front of Jaune, giving him a nice long look at her backside, which he remained partially unaware of. Weiss on the other hand had the decency to remain upright, her weapon stabbed into the soft soil as she leaned against it and attempted to show no weakness in front of the former Uchiha.

"I'm never letting you hit me with that," she declared, her voice rasped by the need to fill her lungs with precious air again. A few blows were all it took for her to feel useless and be rendered as such from his strength and the cold touch of his Semblance. Aura could negate only so much and even coming from an icy location such as Atlas could do very little when faced with a Semblance that, to her testing, had no real base temperature recorded just yet. Fighting him in the Tournament would be problematic if they were forced to fight his team, let alone him.

The raven-haired teen chuckled at the proclamation. If she were a bit faster or could think a bit further with traps and her usually set of skills, he wouldn't doubt that. She was already getting more than few blows in during their matches, but Pyrrha had the skills and the combat experience to back up such a claim.

"I'll hold you to that." She snorted at him. He released his grip on the ice and enjoyed the sensation of the ice thawing over his skin. It reminded him of drying off in the sun after going for a swim when he was a kid. Back when things were simpler. When he was home with his parents. When his brother hadn't… He shook his head to rid himself of those thoughts. He couldn't fall back to that dark path. Not again. Not now. Not ever. "How's your training coming along, Jaune? Feel like you've improved any?"

"Is that a trick question or a loaded question?" Sasuke shrugged. The blond rubbed the bridge of his noise as he did his best to avoid looking in the Heiress's direction while answering as honestly as he could. "I feel like I have improved. Not enough to challenge you or anyone else to right now…"

Sasuke closed the distance between them faster than Jaune could follow and tapped him on the forehead with two fingers. This single motion with little force was enough to cause Jaune to stumble back, albeit more out of shock, and nearly fall on his backside while rubbing the spot.

"That's not the way to think about this." The former Uchiha slid his hands into his pockets. He rubbed his index and thumb together as if he were trying to clean them inside his pocket. "The best swordsman doesn't fear the second-best. He fears the worst. Because he can't predict what the idiot will do." To Arc's relief, Weiss seemed lost to that line of thinking while Pyrrha seemed rather amused at the meaning behind it. "You want to know the funniest thing that separates Naruto and me? It's more than the training, the skills we use, our fighting styles, and our abilities. It's our line of thinking. Naruto isn't the best fighter. He's not even the second-best. He's the idiot. And you know why he remains unbeatable in all my stories? It's because he knows that he's the idiot and he uses it to his advantage. That's what you are, Jaune. No offense."

"Some taken… I think…?"

Running a hand through his hair, Sasuke sighed. Pep talks weren't his thing. That was Naruto while he finishing or continued beating the ever-loving stuffing out of you. "All I'm saying is that sometimes aiming to be the best isn't the best way to go about something. Don't imitate. Innovate. Naruto won fights against me because he makes up stuff on the go. If he had a plan, it'd be shot to hell instantly and he'd have to wing it from there. Stop trying to be what you're not."

"That's sounds easy to say, but not so easy to do."

"That might be the dumbest thing I've ever heard," Weiss chimed in.

"No. It's true." Pyrrha looked bashful when the three turned her way. "I learned how to fight by many instructors. I wanted to be the best. I tried to be like them. It didn't work out too well. I learned my style of fighting by constantly picking myself and learning what works for me. In truth, Jaune, a fight is all about being unpredictable. As soon as you are predictable, you lose."

"So, I need to _not_ be predictable? How do I do that with what I have?"

The raven-haired teen took out his sword, turned it sideways, and gave Jaune a good smack to his knee. Jaune yelped like a kicked puppy, and rightly so as he was both not expecting such a sudden attack and the forced used was enough to leave a stinging sensation.

"Why'd you do that?" Jaune yelled out as he rubbed his leg.

"It's a sword. I smacked you with it."

"Yeah. And? So, what?" And like a light was turned on, he got it. "Oh… But it's a sword. Why not stab and slash with it?"

"Just because it's a sword with a sharp side and a pointy end, doesn't mean he has to use it like that?" Pyrrha confessed as she pointed out Sasuke's weapon. "Remember, Naruto ne wielded a Reverse-Blade sword until it was broken. A sword that can only kill if the blade is flipped and unsheathing it to do so in combat would require a great amount of skill. Skill that I'm sure he didn't and still doesn't have." Sasuke nodded to this. "But he could use it for a blunt style of fighting and in doing so, not kill his opponent. It's one way to use a sword outside of how Sasuke just used his. Did you expect him to stab or slash you with it?"

"I guess…"

"Then you learned something. A shield can be a weapon of great power just as a sword can. If you use them in unpredictable ways, I'm sure you can come out on top against someone."

"…Easy for you to say," Jaune repeated, sounding a little more unsure than normal now.

(-)

"White Fang own this place now. General Ironwood was right." Hawk lowered her binoculars and handed them off to Naruto. The blond grumbled as he took them and looked out over the large structure. "A battle occurred recently. The walls are damaged." She informed him.

Naruto could see that. It looked like a small scuffle with weather and time being the real culprits. Did this place recently get taken by the White Fang or was it something that had been taken some time ago and just never noticed until now? The idea of that wasn't that off putting to Naruto given the few history lessons Iruka he had paid attention to, though unwillingly mind you.

The walls were three stories tall with a tower at each of the four corners of the wall with a turret and three stationed guards. They didn't openly wear their masks, but the fact that they were all Faunus was most likely the reasoning to believe they were White Fang. Naruto had his doubts for sure, but he was going to go along with this since this was a scouting operation and information recovery type. It was probably best to assume the worst.

"We can use the train tracks to get in," she told him. She gestured towards the south end of the base. Peering back through the binoculars in the general direction, Naruto was able to see the tracks she spoke of. He lowered them and tossed the object back to her. "If we're lucky, they'll have most of their forces guarding the walls. We can sneak in undetected with fewer people."

"Why not just walk through the front door?" Hawk's head turned slow enough that Naruto might have thought time had frozen with how slowly did just the simplest of motions. Even blinking seemed to slow down for her. "What?"

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard… Ever."

Rolling his eyes, Naruto stood to his full height, brought his hands together and exploded into a small puff of smoke. When the smoke was gone, what stood where he had been, was a male Faunus with cat ears, a grey jean coat with matching jeans, and a simple white shirt. His hair was black and reaching down to the center of his back while piercing blue eyes blinked in her presence.

"…Interesting Semblance…"

He shrugged and touched her shoulder to change her as well. Hawk backed up just as he finished channeling his Chakra to force a transformation over her body. It wouldn't last long if she got away from him, but this was better than nothing.

The smoke cleared and the woman Hawk was no longer the same woman. Her hair was now a deep red and ending at her neck with one part in a braid on the left side of her head. Her skin was still pale as snow but now sported black markings along her bare arms and bare left leg. She wore torn up black jeans with the left side being removed just a few inches shy of her hips, along with a sleeveless blue jean jacket and black sleeveless shirt. Aside from the markings on her form, the only other way to tell she was now a disguised Faunus were the claws she sported instead of regular nails.

"Don't touch me with that!" she hissed out.

"It's done already. Let's go."

"Let's go? You didn't even do anything!"

"Yes, I did. You can't see it on you because I don't have a mirror with me to show you. Besides, I can't hold this for long on two people." _Correction: I don't want to hold this for too long on two people._ Naruto looked out over the open terrain as Hawk started checking herself out as best she could without said object available. "We need to move. I don't feel like recasting that on you. It was hard enough as it was and doing it again on you might not work out too well."

Hawk continued to pat her own chest, something that was now rather lacking in appearance, yet she could swear she felt her original size instead of the chest of her little sister… which was the equivalent of being flat chested. Cruel to think of her sister like that it may be, but an apt assessment of her current size in comparison. "There is no way this is going to work. My plan sounds better." Naruto motioned down to the sandy region below and towards a group of traveling Faunus. "…Not a single word, got it?"

He shrugged and jumped down, sliding along the incline and reaching the bottom without a sound. Hawk landed a moment later, her hand instinctively reaching for her now hidden weapon as she approached the traveling group from behind. They trailed behind a pair of bear Faunus that were chatting about their kids and didn't really listen until they got to the front entrance.

Hawk remained beside him, her eyes twitching from being out in the open like this. It wasn't like her to out in the open, let alone the public eye back home. Military training made the normal routines such as having her blinds open a none existent thing anymore.

"…Cargo is in the back. Warehouse thirty-two B. You know where that's at, right?"

Naruto and Hawk glanced at the speaker, a large cat-like Faunus that was giving orders to another person. "Of course, sir. We'll get what we need and then be on our way."

The guard nodded and opened the main gate, allowing them entrance. As soon as they were inside the base, Hawk noticed that their fears were realized as the base was overtaken by the White Fang. What the walls showed was one thing with Faunus guards and not much else, but behind the walls were fully dressed White Fang members, eagerly moving supplies around. They were organized too. Too organized with a terrorist group. This was more militarized and the people in charge were giving out orders that made sense.

She gestured to Naruto that they needed to move away from the group to begin their investigation on where the missions supplies had gone to. Naruto gave a nodded and followed her through the base as they melded with shadows and ran from the light. Finally, after a rough thirty minutes she spotted their destination and moved him to a small closet fair distance away from the room they needed.

Cracking the door, she peered through and eyed two guards in front of the door. "We need to take the two guards out," she told him as the transformation was finally, and regrettably, canceled for her. Naruto bit his lower lip under his mask in thought. "If we could lure them both over here, we can take them out and get inside."

Naruto motioned for her to back up. "I got an idea. I'll grab both of them and knock them out. We can't let them get off a single sound." Her look was that of an angry child again as she watched him summon four copies of himself. Blinking, she reached out and touched two of them that were in arm's length. When her arm didn't pass through them, she took a step back, sized him up again, and just nodded, accepting that he had more than one Semblance. She could ask later on that.

Taking a deep breathe, he nodded and two of his clones flickered as if hit by something unseen before one of the guards was replaced with one of the guards and thoroughly knocked out before he could utter a single word. The other one didn't get moved and wasn't even aware of his partner being taken, or that he had been replaced by a blond. The clone jumped on him and hauled him back to the closet where they detained him and made sure he was knocked out.

He kept two clones to guard them and put the other two in front of the door. Naruto took a deep breath once more and looked to Hawk as returned to his previous transformed state. "We need to get in there, but I have no idea on what's on the other side of that door or what we could be walking in to." These two didn't have the garb of the White Fang. They looked like regular citizens. He touched Hawk and got a near match to her previous state as well. "This won't last long," he reminded.

"It only needs to last a few minutes," she told him quickly as she moved out of their hiding spot and marched towards the room in question. The two clones let them in and they were quick to spot a few Faunus working at the terminals. The Faunus paid them no mind and they quickly moved to the closest of the terminals. Naruto hovered over her and watched her work as she placed her scroll on the access port.

Her fingers drummed along the keyboard, making it sound like machinegun fire was happening in the room with her speed. She brought up file after file as she searched for what she needed as her scroll downloaded anything and everything it could. A limitation on hardware was the thing slowing this whole process down for her. Their computers weren't up to date and probably for a good reason.

"What's that?" Naruto said, pointing to a small video window. She paused in what she was doing to enlarge it. A man with a familiar mop of red hair was speaking to a human. A very familiar human as well. "Adam and Roman are here?" he whispered. He glanced over his shoulder to the other Faunus that were laughing about something. "Where are they?"

"That's not our problem," she told him. They could deal with them at a later date. This was information retrieval. Not an assassination job. If it was, they'd march down there right now, kill the two of them, and then fight a literal army just to escape. She checked the time and bit down on her lower lip. Time was starting to wind down for them. "We don't have time."

Naruto gripped the back of her chair and growled. He could kill Adam here and Blake wouldn't know. Everything would be fine. She'd never know and he could get away with it. That man wasn't even a Faunus. He was a monster with the horror stories he read about him on the media. Fighting for equality didn't have to mean bloodshed, but damn if he wasn't taking things beyond it.

Her scroll beeped and she tore it out. "We need to go," she told him in a whisper. Naruto released the chair and moved for the door. The Faunus in the room never noticed them enter of leave. "What about the two guards? They'll know something was up."

He made two clones and replicated them instantly. He stopped and looked at his own scroll for time. They had one hour to get back to their LZ and await pickup. "Head to the forest. Dispel there. And we're taking the two guards." Hawk looked uneasy about take the two. Naruto removed a scroll from his pouch and sealed the two Faunus inside it. "I'd put you in here, but I have no idea on whether or not I put them in their right to begin with. I'd rather not seal a person I'm working with." He marched out the door with her on his heels.

(-)

"That stuff you said about Naruto being the worst," Weiss spoke up, stopping the former Uchiha in his tracks. It was just the two of them. Jaune had left with Pyrrha to continue weapon training and going for a run. "Do you really think he's the worst fighter if he's beaten you as many times as you claim?"

The former Uchiha looked to something in the distance that she couldn't see. His single eye slowly dimmed and he saw their last fight play out. The real one where their lives and choices had been on the line. The fight that brought them here. It was a hard-fought battle. Sasuke had thought so highly of himself, even with all the improvements Naruto had gotten along their time as members of Team Seven. Though in the end he was the one standing, Sasuke had never felt like he won that fight. Naruto had beaten him. Maybe not outright in combat, but he won in the end. He beat him both physically and mentally.

Nodding slowly, his eye returned to normal and he said, "Yes," with a tinge of pride in his voice. "Naruto isn't the worst fighter in terms of combat ability. I meant it in a different way. It's his style of fighting. When he swings at you, he's not aiming to cripple or kill. He's just aiming for anything solid that he can hit. And that's not a real style. I'm precise, like you. We aim for weak points, areas that we know will inflict great damage, but where mine are meant to cripple, your style is meant to inflict damage over a shorter period of time in greater results with pinpoint accuracy. You aim to weaken them and tire them out with your style of hit and run by way of your small size and speed."

Arching a thin brow, she wondered if that was a compliment or an observation of their similar styles.

"But Naruto isn't just aiming to hit you with something that'll hurt, even if it gets him hurt in the process. He's a bulldozer that never gives up and can take more punishment than anyone I know, but when he hits you, you **will** feel it. So in terms of combat style, he's not the best and I'd dare say not the worst. What makes him the worst is what makes him the best. He's not going to be predictable at all. He never uses the same attack twice the same way. And when he fights, he's learning unconsciously how to beat you. He's got a knack for making anything impossible possible and blowing all expectations out of the water."

"I still fail to see how this makes him better than you?"

"I never said he was better than me. I simply said he's normally beaten me in combat. The reason is because in my younger years I was arrogant and thought I was the best and he was the worst. But that line of thinking became very poor for me in the end. He used his abilities in ways I never could have imaged. His clones, their corporal, meaning their solid, and while one hit will get rid of them, it's how he uses them while they're alive that make him hard to kill. At one point in a fight we had, he used them to hoist himself, and me, into the air, spin us around, and throw the two of us into a cliff. He did that while a single clone spun the two of us and fifty others clones all linked together just to get a surprise hit on me. It worked. I never saw it coming and I knew how many he could make and I knew how strong he was."

"He got the jump on you once. Big deal. I hardly see how that makes him as great as you claim."

Sasuke ran a hand through his hair. It was hard to imagine that the idiot was stronger and far more cleaver than he was. Sasuke was breed for fighting. His family, while they were alive, helped him hone his skills, along with his brother. He was an Uchiha and had the best grades, never lost a single fight in the academy days, and was considered a prodigy. He would have been the greatest ninja Konoha would have produced if he hadn't been so stuck on gaining power and murdering his brother. And what really kicked him hard in the gut in the end was the deadlast of their school, the idiot, the one no one could see becoming the Hokage of their village, the strongest ninja in existence, or someone with a nine-tailed fox in his gut that gave him unlimited power.

Yeah, he was riding that low for a while when he lost to him and put him in the hospital, then had to fight him again when he woke up because the Kyuubi was possessing him to gain freedom, then dealt with him as an angry and pouty younger brother, fought him again because words were meaningless and Naruto couldn't convey them without punching him, before he was finally sent on a mission that nearly killed him and was now back out in the field where he was getting into some ungodly trouble because that constantly followed him around.

And thinking like this was only going to make things worse for him.

"Look," he finally started, unsure of how much he could explain from this one-time Naruto proved he had a brain and the skill to back it up from time to time, "Naruto is smarter than I will ever give him credit for. He has a brain that rears its ugly head from time to time. But only in combat or when someone is suffering just as he had in the past. There was a fight in the past where my original team was working with our master against another master that was trying to kill someone we were protecting. He trapped our master and left the three of us to fight him. Naruto summoned his clones and dogpiled him. But the man had greater strength than all of us combined and simply shoved Naruto away like he was nothing."

Sasuke shut his eye and smiled at the memory as it played out in his head. He chuckled and then continued.

"Realizing that he couldn't out muscle him he tried a different tactic. Using a combination of his transformation abilities, my general weapons, and his clones, he threw me my Windmill Shuriken," he told her while gesturing to the device on his forearm. "It took me a few seconds to realize what his plan was before I put it in motion. He turned himself into the weapon and had a clone throw it to me because he knew I'd have better accuracy then him. I tossed two of them. One real one. And the fake that was him in the shadow of the first. Naturally, the enemy caught the first one and was so surprised by the second one that he had was forced to evade, less he broke his concentration on the water prison he had created around our master. That was when Naruto returned to normal and tossed a single kunai at the man at his back. He evaded the attack because he had no other choice and released his hold on the water prison, freeing our master."

"That sound so…" Weiss stopped. Could RWBY do that? Could they work so well together that without vocalization they'd know what to do together? A team of children managed to best, if the story was accurate and true, a master Huntsman that had gone dark. It was beyond ingenious. It was beautifully tactical. Was it planned? There had to be details he was leaving out, but this sounded like a plan that would have stories about it. "How did he know it would work?"

"He didn't… Or I think he didn't. The man had claimed we were children and not strong enough to stop him. Naruto, ever so eager to prove someone wrong, rose to the challenge. We saw each other at that time as rivals and burdens to bear. I saw him and Sakura like that, and he saw me as a challenge to overcome. He didn't want to rely on me because he thought that'd make him weak. I didn't want to use him because I thought he was deadweight. Our enemy was too stubborn and believed that we couldn't beat him. He was right; we couldn't. But we were strong enough, smart enough, and Naruto was cleaver enough to come up with a plan right on the spot that saved our butts and freed our master in the end." He smiled and looked at his left hand before tightening it into a fist. "Don't count Naruto out. And don't count Jaune out just because he doesn't have good grades or a good fighting style. I did that before and I lost big time. Jaune might not be as confidant as Naruto, but damn if I don't see his stubbornness in him."

Weiss huffed and walked away, unhappy with the explanation. Maybe Naruto was strong, but a single act of brilliance didn't change her opinion of him.

(-)

"We have a little over thirty minutes before our ride shows up," Winter told Syxx. Syxx nodded as he continued staring out over the facility. The white-haired woman moved to his side and gazed over the facility with him. "They weren't our objective. Even if they had, it would have been suicidal to fight there in the base. They had too many people and too many guns pointed at us. We wouldn't have escaped it."

"The mission is all that matters," he retorted with a growl.

An exasperated sigh left Winter and she regarded him with a scowl. "That's not all that's important at all times. The survival of your team should be higher on the list of priorities."

"Not everyone gets off scot free." As soon as the words left his lips, he turned away, his eyes cold and somewhat distant. A memory could be seen in his eyes. Winter didn't know what he saw, but whatever it was had triggered something terrible in him. She felt his grief wash over her and for a single moment she had a vision of Weiss. "I could go back. Summon my clones, raid the place, and kill Adam… Blake would never know…"

Winter slowly reached for him but pulled back with fingers webbed in doubt.

Slowly, almost regrettably, he removed the scroll and summoned back the two captured men. A few slaps and they woke up. They tried to get up but two clones kept them in place as the masked agent moved in front of them with a knife in hand.

"Okay asshole. Tell me where Adam is going." With their mouths gagged they weren't going to be talking right now, but Syxx either didn't care or was going for an intimidation factor. Winter just wanted to see how this would play out. "They teach you how to keep quiet in this group? You know what they teach me? It's how to extract information. From people like you."

The two captured Faunus looked to one another before their eyes landed on the Schnee behind him. One of them started laughing and Syxx removed the gag. "Tell you what, kid, let us go and hand over the Schnee. We'll forget this ever happened. How about that?"

Syxx's eyes dimmed and he lowered his head, releasing a sigh of annoyance before he stabbed the speaker under the jaw and into his brain. He died only a few seconds after the blade skewered him. With a simple twist, he carved a hole in the flesh and ripped the blade out. The clone broke his neck and dragged him off to start clawing him up with its blades before dumping the body somewhere so that it looked like a Grimm attack.

"Yeah… I guess they never taught me all that well." He started cleaning the blade on his pants leg. "I liked your friend though. Seemed like a funny guy," Syxx told him as casually one could do while torturing and killing another person in front of his second victim. "I need a location of bases. Oh, I'm sorry." He removed the gag. "Tell me the location of your bases."

Huffing, the captured Faunus hissed out, "Bloodgulch Outpost number one," before Syxx covered his mouth with his hand and stabbed him in the thigh, muffling his pained scream.

"Coordinates and real names of the places…"

(-)

Four-Seven-Niner brought the bullhead around when catching sight of the two agents. Lowering the craft low enough for them to get on before blasting off, she was surprised when Hawk walked into the cabin and sat leaned over her shoulder. "How quickly can you get us back to Beacon?"

"Pretty fast, ma'am. Why? How date?"

"Funny."

Hawk left the cabin and returned to Naruto as he sat in one of the chairs, his head resting against the metal plating of the wall behind him. She could see it in his eyes: The conflict, the torturing of oneself, and the terror of realizing what he was. How old was he? This wasn't normal behavior for any agent James molded. This was… something else entirely. A child soldier perhaps? A radical with an axe to grind?

He shut his eyes and for a moment, Hawk wondered just exactly what he was when saw tiny wisps of some dark power leak out over him before being smothered into nothingness. He was an enigma.

"Why do you want to target Adam?" Naruto slowly opened his eyes and stared at the female agent. Hawk put her hands on her hips and continued. "You wanted to kill him. Why? Did he wrong you?"

Closing his eyes again, Naruto inhaled deeply and shook his head. "No… But he's not a good person. As a weapon, I need to deal with him. It's the only thing I know how to do. I have to kill my enemies before they become a threat to the world."

"Is that what they teach you? To kill and simply move on to the next job?" He nodded slowly, almost as if he were unsure if that was the truth he was telling himself or what the Academy had taught him all those years ago. It was slowly getting harder to tell the difference between the lies and the truths and the lessons that were simply interpreted wrong by him and those around him. "There is more to life than simply the mission."

"Well if you have all the answers; why don't you set me straight." She shut her mouth and clamped up. "That's what I thought."

Hawk watched the terrain go by as she moved to the window. Her fingers traced the glass and for a moment she thought back on her own life and the choices that had led up to this point. "It's Winter." Naruto turned his head and made a hummed as though he hadn't caught her name. "My name is Winter Schnee. I'm Weiss's older sister. Since you were at Beacon, I'm assuming you've run in to her a few times."

Nodding, he put his head back on the wall. "Yeah… She doesn't like me."

"I can see why."

Sitting up straight, Naruto growled at her. "Why do you care? The job is done. We survived and didn't have a single fight as a result. You got your information and I got mine."

"So, what? You just going to go after Adam now? He's a powerful Faunus with more and more people following him every day. Even if you are powerful, what can you possibly do against an army of Faunus with Atlas-Grade weaponry at their disposal? They'd gun you down before you even got to their bases. You'd die quicker than anyone else ever could imagine and it'd be for nothing."

"That's my choice in the end."

"Be that as it may, if you go down this path, you won't like it."

"You don't even know me."

"True, but I can see a lot of me in you." Naruto huffed and turned away. He opened his communication scroll and started typing in the locations for their bases to see where they were at. One was close to Vale. Mount Glenn. He could get there and take that base out and maybe find Adam. It'd be easy. Winter tore the object away from him. "You think you're so great that all you have to do is go there and everything will work out, don't you?"

"I'll wing it. It's always worked in the past for me."

"That doesn't always work." She ran a hand through her hair and took a calming breath. "Running off to die is a pointless endeavor. Think of all the people that'd miss you in the end." Stealing the item back from her, Naruto pocketed it and regarded her with a frosty glare. "I can see what you are. Even if you don't see it. I know why you're doing this. You're doing this to prove you can be powerful and not need others. I made those same mistakes and now I'm paying for it."

"I'm not you. I'm not making your mistakes. I don't even know you. And you don't know me. So, lay off!"

"How many people have you pushed away because you want to prove something?" Naruto blinked and looked her up and down as if trying to figure her out. "A lot, I assume. I pushed away my family. When I'm around my sister, I feel alienated because of how we were raised. I left her. I abandoned my two siblings and mother. I left them to the forceful hands of our father. I can see that in you. You want to push someone away, prove that they're methods are wrong or something like that. I can see that in your actions now. It's all towards one goal. Just like how I was."

"I'm not pushing people away. They made me this way. I'm a weapon. A tool. Once I'm dull, I'm to be thrown away. That's the life of a ninja." Naruto hissed something she didn't catch as he turned and walked away from her. He took a deep breath and heard his parents trying to reason with him. Damn them. Damn his father for not being able to stop the masked man from releasing the Kyuubi. Damn that man for ruining his life. His knuckles turned white as he slowly put his fist to the hull of the craft. "I never asked for this… I never asked for this life. I didn't want to be a weapon. Not like this."

He put his head against the hull and shut his eyes. Minato said something to him, but he ignored it. The words, the choices, the ideals of being a shinobi; they meant nothing here. He was a weapon for Ozpin and James to throw at their enemies. He knew they were using him, but they were sending him home. This was his payment. He solved their problems and they'd solve his. It was fair.

" _I'm sorry for what I did to you, son. But I had no choice."_

" _ **Yes, you did. You could have let me go. I wouldn't have destroyed Konoha after I was freed from that mans' control."**_

Naruto screamed mentally and willed them to be quiet. He looked up and saw his reflection in the window. Though easily transparent, he saw his form. The red eyes, the enlarged whisker marks, the fangs, and the blazing aura. He was a demon. A monster. A real and true devil. He wasn't even human anymore.

He put his head back against the hull of the craft and shut his eyes. "I never knew why people hated me. I just never knew why. But when I found out why I was hated, I just accepted it. I thought that if I let it go, then things would change. People would like me. But knowing the truth hurt more than not knowing. And I strove to prove them wrong. But when I learned who made me what I am, I hated him. I hate my father for making me what I am. He used me. Put a power inside me that just simply hates because that's what it is. My mother didn't want this for me, but she had no choice." He turned slowly to face Winter. "I'm a weapon because my father sacrificed my humanity to make a demon. He had a choice, and he decided that the balance of power between the small villages needed to be upheld. So, he made me a monster because it needed to be done. He said he had no choice, but he had a choice. He chose poorly."

 _Yes… I know that feeling._ Winter shut her eyes and remembered the yelling, the screaming between herself and her father. She ran off, joined the military, left Weiss to deal with her father. She wanted to fly on her own and she accomplished it by doing so many terrible things. She abandoned them. Left her mother and siblings to their fathers' twisted goals of maintaining a company that had more bad reputations than any military campaign in history. She regretted leaving Weiss the most. And now it made her wish she was a better person towards her. That she didn't abandon her to be used by that man. Maybe there was some reason behind it all.

At the very core of that man there was something fatherly about him. He never abandoned them. He wanted them to live happy lives, but it was for his purposes only. Maybe in his happiness, he was teaching them to be strong and make choices based on his reasoning because he saw the world in a way they couldn't. How could they? They were children when these paths were made for them. They deviated from a path he wanted them to follow and maybe that was why he saw no value in them? He held Weiss on a leash by his money alone. He tried with her and that backfired. But with Weiss it hadn't. Not yet.

Perhaps, in some twisted way, he loved them. Not a conventional normal way that most people associated with love. But a fatherly love that went beyond the here and now and moved to a future where their lives would be their own. Was that love? He cared for them by giving them what they wanted as long as it was something he desired as well. He gave Weiss he lessons in music because in the end, it made him happy. Her songs, no matter how painful sad they were, were always a reflection of her own soul and the inner turmoil she endured through him. But he approved of her songs, no matter how revealing or sad they were. Did he simply take joy in her suffering, or was he hoping that somewhere along the line she'd see the beauty in his actions and change them?

"How do you do it?" Naruto's words pulled Winter from her thinking about her father. "I don't know how to move forward anymore. The truth hurts so much that at times, I don't know what to do. I have the power to do so much, but if I do nothing, then nothing changes. But I don't know what to do." He looked to his hand and saw the blood that had previously coated it from those two Faunus he captured and tortured for information. "I never wanted this life. I wanted to be strong to prove I wasn't weak. I wanted to get smarter to prove I wasn't stupid. But no matter what I do, I feel like it was all for someone else's goal in the end."

"That's life. Everyone has goals with other people. Do you think people that say they want nothing in return truly want that? Every action is based on a choice and a path we want to follow. Even if we deviate from that path, we still find a way to get what we want, even if we endure many hardships along the way."

"But isn't it possible I would find what I most desired along a path I didn't choose or that was laid out for me by someone else?"

"If you start thinking like that, you'll run out of time. A path not chosen is the same as a path that never existed." Her face twisted into a look of hatred. "If only I'd done this. If only I'd done that." Her eyes darkened and she shook her head. "No matter how much we look back at the past. We can never go back. We can't change what has already happened. We are each of us constantly moving into an unknown and unseen future."

Lowered his hand, Naruto looked to Winter and touched his stomach where the seal was. The Kyuubi was laughing, his mother was crying for him, his father was silent. "Is there no hope for someone like me then? Am I to be a weapon because I was forged to be one?"

He saw it then. A ray of hope in the form of the woman before him. She smiled, a gesture almost foreign to him for how genuine it was and rare he saw pointed in his direction. It was usually a smirk or a challenging smile that he remembered seeing. Iruka might have flashed him one from time to time, but it was almost as though it was an uneasy smile, like he was wrestling with something from within to do just that.

"What is hope?" she asked him carefully. "That all of your wishes and all of your dreams come true? To have your prayers answered? To turn back time because things weren't supposed to happen like that? Could you say with absolute certainty that you wouldn't make the same mistakes again? Who decided all this? And what's been decided?" She moved to the chair and sat down. "Hope is something that makes people strong. Just because you were forged to be a weapon doesn't mean you have to be. I'm sure that no matter what, it pained your father to do that to you. I don't know where he is, but with how you speak of him, he's dead. I'm sure that in his final moments he was thinking of you. Maybe you're just looking at what he did the wrong way. Perhaps he did because he sought a way to protect you."

" _Naruto, you should change."_ His father's voice echoed through his mind, breaking his silence. " _I couldn't save you. I couldn't solve our worlds' problems because I didn't know what to do with the hate that our world suffered and still suffers from. I know we're still mending our relationship but believe me when I say that I didn't see another way out of the problem created by the masked man. Naruto, I couldn't change anything in our world or myself. So you'll have to do it for me."_

Winter saw his change in stature happen. He looked happier suddenly, as if he were listening to a voice only he could hear that gave him hope or a change in purpose. He smiled and nodded. "Alright," he said quietly. "I'll change…" His mismatching eyes seen to shimmer red for a moment before returning back to their mismatched colors. "Naruto Uzumaki… That's my name, Winter."

"We're coming up on Beacon, you two." Four-Seven-Niner told them, shouting back at them.

"Gotcha," Winter replied, a small grin on her face. "Take care, Uzumaki. It was nice working with you. And… don't go off alone. If you intend to target that base, let me know… I'll help you out. But don't do it. It's stupid to die a pointless death."

He nodded and extended his hand. Winter looked down at his hand and then to him. "I want do anything stupid like that. I promise. Shake on it?" She chuckled and shook his hand. "Maybe we'll meet up again in the future. Maybe you can meet my friend and brotherly figure. He's friends with Weiss. Sasuke?"

Winter nodded as she let go of his hand. "I've heard stories about him my dear sister. Next time you see her, tell her that I'd like to meet him, along with her leader. They seem nice." He hopped off the bullhead to the ground below as the craft reached the landing pad.

"I'll do that!" he called back before bolting towards the school. Winter could see some of the students rushing to their respective classes and caught a glimpse of someone with raven colored hair greeting Naruto as the bullhead took off to return her to her ship.

(-)

"Winter is going over the information now," Naruto reported to Ozpin and James. Sasuke wasn't present for this. Naruto put his scroll on the table and Ozpin took over as a list of names and locations sprang up. "I managed to interrogate a few people that we had to capture to get through the base. They said the closes base is in Mountain Glenn. I didn't get a detail on their numbers, but I have other targets if you want me to pursue them."

"I think that's enough information for me to start sending in ground team to scout out the area," James offered. He looked over the Jinchuuriki and smiled. "If you were one of my men, I'd give you a medal and promotion for pulling this off."

"But I'm not one of yours." Naruto looked at Ozpin and then turned to the door. He stopped short of leaving and then faced Ozpin again. "I'd like some time off if that's possible."

Arching a brow, Ozpin laced his fingers together and leaned forward, a sly grin forming beneath his shadowed lips. "And what has brought about this change, I wonder?"

"I want to find myself." Naruto looked at his hand. "Ever since I got here and woke up, I've been haunted by the words of my father and the Kyuubi. I had it placed in me because I had to save the village, but more so to keep the balance of power between the Bijuu and the villages. For the past few months I've worked for you believing I was only a weapon. I want to see if I can change that. My father promised to help me, along with my mother. But I can't do that while I'm working. I'd like some time off to find myself. I just need time."

"Then take all the time you need. I won't send you out on any mission unless you feel up to the task. But should the Grimm attack…"

"I'll be there. I promise you that. I just need to find something I lost."

Ozpin nodded and Naruto left the room. As soon as the doors shut, James turned to Ozpin, a look of disappointment evident on his face. "Why would you allow that?"

"Naruto has been struggling to find his place in this world. He's coming to terms now with things that have been festering inside him. Though he's made great strides in changing, he needs to find himself again. The Naruto that Sasuke spoke of never showed weakness like how he does. He was emotional and carrying. This Naruto is not that. He saw himself as a weapon and wants to get back to who he was. I noticed the change begin when he awoke after his fight against the White Fang at the rally. Now he's trying to complete that change."

"I don't like the idea of this, Oz. He's already in the right mindset. What if he gets sloppy because he goes back to who he was? What do you think Sasuke would do if he learned you sent him out with him not in the right mindset?"

"We've already done that once. He wouldn't have killed the people at the rally. And he wouldn't have come back so broken. The internal struggle inside him has festered to the point in which it needed to be solved. We couldn't help him. And I doubt Sasuke could help him either. Only he has the power to change himself, just like all of us do." He picked up his cane and walked to the window. "He's stronger as his original self, as I'm told."

"I still don't like it."

Ozpin smiled. _No. I guess you don't._


	26. The First Dance in the Step

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

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Chapter 25

"I think this is the dumbest thing you've ever done or conceived since I've known you."

"How so?"

Sasuke looked over his former teammate and slowly blinked his single eye as he compiled the list mentally before trying to figure out where to start from said list. To start, Naruto was now wearing a simply black t-shirt and pair of blue jeans. Normally, this would not be the case as he'd always worn some kind of orange, even after coming here. Coco did her best to keep that unsavory color away from him, but sadly, all attempts fell short when he could simply opt to wear an illusion over his choice of clothing. So, the two had simply decided to let that fight fall to the wayside in favor of trying to get him into other things that had also failed for the time of their use.

The other change came from him sitting perfectly still, or a clone of him at least. Sasuke didn't know if the clone was sleeping or trying to meditate. And for that matter, he wasn't even sure these two were the same. For all he knew, Naruto could be outside of this room doing something else. Like torturing Cardin for another terrible deed done to some poor soul. The life of a bully was hard and long, but damn if Naruto wasn't always there to put him in his place with a well-deserved, and undetected, prank that hadn't been linked back to him.

Another thing that was noteworthy were the stack of history, math, and world geography books that now lines his desk where his sealing arrays were located. A few other books, like Ninja's of Love and a few self-help books were tucked away on a small bedside nightstand with Ninja's of Love having a bookmark put about thirty pages or so in to mark his spot in it. Where he got it and what it was about, Sasuke didn't care. But the fact he was reading something at all that wasn't magic based was a step in the right, and possibly wrong, direction. He wasn't judging. He was just worried about him.

But the biggest, and strangely oddest, change came in the form of a bowl of fruit that was at said desk. An apple was already eaten to the core and two banana peels now lay on a napkin while the bowl was filled with grapes. Naruto didn't eat that kind of food. He inhaled ramen like they inhaled air. His food pallet was one-part ramen and one-part broth and one-part water. He never deviated from that. Or at least he never saw the deviation in it.

Sasuke could get behind any form of change in a person, be it bad or good because it was something he was trying to do, just like how everyone was with their lives. A failure to change and adapt meant you were stuck in a rut. And a desire to keep things the same was also just as bad. If you failed to move forward with the world, you were inevitably left behind. And if you were left behind, you were forgotten. The history of Mantle was proof of that. They didn't want to change, and as a result, Atlas, came into power and now claimed its right as the capital of that land, leaving Mantle in the dark past that it now trapped itself in.

Why did he find this all so terribly troubling? Well the short answer was that change was best done in moderations. Some people might be able to handle a big change, like having a roommate or significant other move in with them. But for those that couldn't, a small change, like something as waking up early by setting an alarm clock or three was generally a smarter and safer bet. Starting small was always the best idea. Like learning how to cook. Learn a few meals and set your expectations within a reasonable tolerance. No one could make a five-star meal the first time they go at it.

"I don't truly know where to begin, so I'm just going to tell you that you're doing this too big too fast." The quizzical look he got in return was all the proof he needed that this warning was not understood by his former teammate. "You need to start small. This is too big and too fast of a change. No one can make such a drastic change like this."

"I don't see how this is a big change."

Sasuke closed his eye and massaged the bridge of his nose. Were all little brothers this dumb or slow, or was this just Naruto being Naruto again? He couldn't say that this was because he was blond, because Yang sure wasn't dumb. She had her moments, but everyone had their moments, so he couldn't use that excuse, not that it would work here anyways. This was just Naruto trying too hard and not seeing what the problem was because he was used to trying big things that usually paid off.

"You can't just change your diet as quickly as you think. You have to work to a change. Find something you like, throw it in your meal, even if it's something as small as a snack. Don't change your entire diet because it can and will cause medical problems with you. That'd be the first problem I see here." Naruto nodded, accepting that and obviously thinking on something to do about that. "I'm happy you're picking up reading on other things, but don't bite off more than you can chew. This is a bit much. Start smaller and find books you know will help. Those look too big with words that might be too big or too long for you to understand. If you want, I'm sure I can help you, or get Weiss to help you. Hell! I'm sure the Librarian will help you if you ask?"

"Glynda?"

"No. The actually Librarian."

"That place has one?!"

Squeezing his eye shut, he resisted the urge to throttle his friend. That'd be no good here and he wasn't in the mood for the fight, even if it would be considered training. "The next change would be your outfit. I'm happy it's not a bright color like what you usually wear, but I hope you understand that wearing black isn't going to show proof of a change. An outfit only does so much for someone, and while I'm happy, it's not exactly a great swap."

"Then what should I wear? White? That's Weiss's thing." He paused and glanced back at the Naruto on the bed, arching a thin brow before shrugging. "Mom says I should wear red. Said something about our clan liking that color. Maybe that'll work?"

"Fine. Red will work, but in small doses. Don't go and buy all red shirts and pants. That's just dumb." Naruto suddenly snickered and then pouted all at the same time. "They made fun of you for wearing orange all the time, didn't they?" Naruto nodded with a depressing sigh. If a rock were present, he expected his blond-haired friend to start kicking it around in a rejected fashion. "Just please, for my sake, don't bite off more than you can chew. I'm happy you're trying to change, but this seems like a bad idea to go too big too fast. What if this blows up in your face? I don't want you feeling like you failed at something that should be easy."

"Now you sound like my dad."

"Then he's a smarter man then I give him credit for."

"You don't even know him."

"True, but I paid attention in history class. The man was a brilliant warrior that mastered Fuinjutsu, created a powerful technique that you have mastered, even though you claim he never completed it. The man was, and still to this day, probably the third strongest Kage I've read about, trumped only by the first two for our village." Naruto made a face that looked like he was doubtful of that and judging by his sudden grin that might have held more truth than Sasuke was willing to know at this time. He could ask later. "I just want to make sure that you're going to be okay out of this. I want you to succeed because I'm all for you changing and becoming a better and stronger person. We're all we have here."

"I get that. I really do. But I'm listening to my parents on this. These are their suggestions." Naruto ran a hand through his hair and looked at his black shirt. "Maybe black isn't my color, but it was the only other thing I had. I'll go to town later today to get some clothes."

"I'll tag along if they don't pile on any homework for me." 

"Good luck with that."

"Here's hoping. I don't like the idea of you out there on your own trying to buy clothes for yourself. Not that I have anything against you, it's just that I think you might do something a little strange with it." Naruto nodded. He could see himself doing that. "Anything else planned for today?"

"No. I think I'm just going to talk with my parents and continue working on some of the arrays."

"You any closer to making progress with some of the more advanced ones?"

"I have no idea. Mom seems to think I'm getting there, but dad keeps saying that she's like me and had stupid hands. Dad thinks I'm getting it, but I'm not even close to being past beginner yet." Naruto folded his arms and shook his head. "You'd think that if my clan was powerful as it was, I'd have received training on how to use this stuff."

"Well it's advanced. It's not like it's something they taught us."

"Which mom is laughing at and is also very angry about." Sasuke arched a brow and Naruto started scratching his head. "Dad says that because peace was somewhat achieved and war wasn't going on like how it was when he was a kid, class was a bit different. They taught Fuinjutsu to them, but it was never on the level of the Uzumaki clan. Which makes sense I guess."

"It does, but it also doesn't." Sasuke cupped his chin in thought. It was proof of their world being further twisted and backwards. Even in times of peace here, they still seemed to train their students to fight other students, and not just for the festival, but against other nations should someone grow a pair to stand against another. Currently their main enemy seemed to be the White Fang, which made some sense. Otherwise, they'd be fighting Grimm and only Grimm. "They help you out with any of our theories?"

Naruto now looked exasperated and craned his head to look at the ceiling. "I don't have any idea on that they're talking about. It's well beyond me. It's all based on theories concerning chakra flow in our bodies and the world, along with infusing it into items for storage, along with the use of seals and our chakra nature. I don't understand it."

"Well keep trying. If I have to, I'll use my Sharingan and go inside your head to see if I can understand it. But with as much homework as I've been getting, plus team exercises, that might take a while." Naruto nodded. Being a Teachers' Assistant meant he knew what was coming and what wasn't. He knew that Oobleck wanted his students to do a detailed paper on the underground black market of Mistral. And judging from what little he'd already read on the books he'd taken out, that was going to be a long and detailed piece of work.

"Hopefully it doesn't come to that. I got a headache last time that was done. Probably not a good idea to fishing in my head again just to talk to them." Naruto's eyes squinted as he looked his adopted older brother over. "How are you and Coco doing? Any news on when she's coming back?"

"We're not dating."

Naruto blinked a few times. "But you're always around her. I thought you were dating."

"No. We're not dating." Sasuke looked at his watch. He had to leave soon. Glynda was having another sparring session for class today. He didn't want to miss it or miss a chance to fight one of the new students that had already arrived. "Besides, we're too young to think about things like that. We're fourteen. We shouldn't be looking for relationships."

"But I thought…" 

"Thought that since we spend time together that makes us a couple? No. We're just friends. She's been helping me get better at socializing with others and is also helping me with you in getting you out of orange. Thankfully you're about to make that so much easier." Naruto still didn't look convinced. "We're not dating. Naruto, we don't know the first thing about a relationship. Do you know what it's about?"

"Holding hands and spending time with them?" Sasuke's single eye rolled and the blond sighed. "What do you want from me? We were both trained by a perverted teacher. You spent a month with Kakashi training while I spent a month training with the author of his favorite book." The Jinchuuriki sighed. "Actually, I spent more than a month training with him and went out on some of his research operations. I guess I got it worse." A curios gleam formed in his eye as he stared at his friend. "Did you happened to have to read any of those books while training with Kakashi?"

Sasuke blinked. _Nagato placed Keshena on the bed, his mighty hands gently caressing the side of her face as he slowly removed_ _-_

"Can't say I did." He shuddered as he remembered the horrible, yet well detailed, writing when he read Kakashi's porn book. Who got off on that? How did he get off on that? "Besides, weren't you trained by the author? Surely he taught you something about it?"

Naruto blinked owlishly as he remembered the words of his now late mentor. _"Women are creatures of beauty, Naruto," Jiraiya said to as they watched from the seclusion of the treetops down on the women in the river, "that are meant to be feared for their ferocity in bed, enjoyed for their lustful beauty, and respected for the bountiful breasts."_

"Looking back on it, he's probably wrong on one or two things," he admitted quietly. He could see it though. Maybe the man had a point on more than just what little impactful wisdom he gave him. Or he was dead wrong and women were meant to just be feared. That might explain why Sakura hit him all the time. Did that only apply to their world? He hoped so. "Let's move on."

Sasuke checked the time again and shook his head. "I gotta get to class. I'm sure you can think of some other things to do for helping you change while I'm gone. Or you can come with me and watch me do a match."

"Pass. I think for once I'm just going to be lazy."

"When are you not lazy?" Naruto raised a fist as if to threaten him but then decided against any hostile action. Sasuke just smiled. "We can train this weekend. Hopefully nothing crazy happens between now and the dance."

"Isn't that like a month away?"

"Something like that." Sasuke opened the door and departed, but not before turning and look back at the bowl of fruit. "Try not to overeat on the fruit. Apples are all well and good, but too many can't be healthy for you. At least I don't think."

"Then I need to go throw up."

"I'm just trying to be funny. I guess my joke suck still." He left, shutting the door and leaving the blond in the room with his clone.

The Naruto on the bed opened his eyes and glanced at the other one. "You think he knows that he was talking a clone the whole time?" Bed-Naruto asked.

"Probably," the clone replied, smirking as he picked up his scroll and started looking for some more stores to visit in Vale. "How are the talks going?"

"Meh… Dad is still trying to explain the next level of sealing I need to master, but the arrays are really complex. I told him I'm taking a break. Mom agreed that I should take a break and so I'm back. Learn anything while I was out?"

"Ninjas of Love is a great book."

"I meant for the history stu- What? Why am I talking to you? I can just kill you and figure out on my own." The clone shrugged and dispersed, leaving a blinking Naruto on the bed to glare at the apple core on his desk. "He was joking about apples being bad, right?"

(-)

Jaune took one look at the match and declared, "She's got this," only to watch as Weiss was beaten by Emerald not a few moments later. Sighing, he glanced over at his team that had opted to watch the fight in silence.

Emerald was good, but if Glynda hadn't called the match due to time limit and aura consumption, Weiss might have won. Plus, Emerald wasn't using her Semblance, or so it seemed to Jaune. Perhaps she was and he just didn't know what to look for.

"Not bad, but not good either." Jaune glanced over at Emert as the teen stared at the victorious teen. "She relies too heavily on her weapons. Lacks hand-to-hand combat. She'd rather fight you afar than up in your face."

"It's her style. It works for her," Jasper added. He scratched at his chin and caste a shy glance in Pyrrha's direction. After a few months of not fighting, his grades for Glynda's class had finally forced him to fight and he lost against Pyrrha. Sasuke had warned him that this would be the case, but the man had believed that if he won one fight against you, you were never going to beat him.

Glynda put a stop to the conversations by calling for the next set of fighters. "Dove Bronzewing and Jaune Arc, please come down to the arena."

Jaune felt a chill run over him as he heard the names. Slowly, he got up, his hand resting on his handle of his blade for comfort and made his way down to the arena. He wished his first fight was against someone weaker. Dove wasn't a pushover. The man had talent and skill to back up his rather pulp figure.

The walk was quicker than he would have liked. Dove had opted to jump from their seats down to the arena. He stood in the center a cocky smirk and his sword resting against his shoulder. Dove was only second best in his team. Shame that Cardin wasn't the best and that went to Russel.

Grabbing his sword and equipping his shield, Jaune took his battle stance and calmed his breathing for the fight.

"Begin."

Dove zipped over to Jaune with incredible speed for his size and began slashing at him in an attempt to whittle down his aura as quickly as possible. Jaune stopped each attack before it could hit him with his shield. The blows were light, but the speed in which he did them was had to keep up with.

Dove jumped over the blond and slashed at his head. Jaune negated most of the force from the blow with a well-timed brace from his shield, but his head was still grazed. As Dove landed, Jaune spun and did an upward slash, catching the teen just barely across his chest. His aura took the blow, but if Jaune were to look at the board, it would show no change in his aura gauge.

Taking the blow personally, Dove shoved his shoulder into Jaune's body to force him back as he gripped the handle of his weapon with both hands and delivered a powerful upward slash that caught him across the chest and knocked his aura down a considerable amount while sending the blond leader stumbling back and falling on his backside. This saved him from a follow-up swing that would have hit him in the head and threw the other teen off-balance when his swing didn't connect with its target.

Jaune rolled backwards in an impressive display of flexibility and quick thinking. Dove righted himself and charged towards the teen with his weapon ready to skewer him. Jaune stopped it with his shield, twisted around the thrust, slashed, and caught Dove in the back with full contact this time. Dove stubbled forward, twisted around, and took shoots at Jaune. The leader of JNPR raised his shield and blocked the bullets but blinded himself. Dove jumped on the opportunity and rushed him with a sliding slash that knocked Arc to his knees. Dove rushed back and hit him in the head with a roundhouse kick that knocked him to the ground hard.

The blond leader got up slowly and took a few punches to the face as a result before he regained his bearings. As Dove aimed yet another punch for his face, Jaune flipped his sword and presented it in front of the fist. Dove didn't stop and slammed his knuckles into the blade. If aura hadn't been covering his knuckles, he would have surely lost a finger. Jaune was lucky as well since the force behind the punch was enough to send the blade back at his face, but a timely raise of his shield prevented this and allowed him to press the advantage when Dove backed up and stared at him.

Shield and sword in hand, Jaune moved up with a shield bash. Dove sidestepped the attack and did a twirl with his blade out to take another chunk out of Jaune's aura. Arc hissed as he felt the sting of the blade against his back and spun with his shield out to hit him. Dove brought his arm up to block it. Jaune twisted his arm and collapsed the shield back to its scabbard form and clocked Dove against the side of the head, knocking the man for a loop.

Jaune pressed the attack and got in two more good knocks before Dove retaliated with a fury of blows that left the Arc youth confused and on the floor. He wasn't sure what happened, only that he was now on the ground and staring at the darkened ceiling.

"That's the match," Glynda called out. Jaune glanced in the direction of her voice and saw Dove standing over him with his sword ready for another swing. "You've shown some improvements in combat, Mr. Arc, but you still have a lot further to go." Glynda looked at Dove as the teen sheathed his weapon. "As for you…"

Jaune tuned out any further conversation as he got up and moved to the stands to continue watching the next set of fights. He was just happy to have landed a few blows. Dove was capable of standing toe-to-toe with Pyrrha for swordsmanship. The fact that he even managed to hit him a few times was proof of his improvement. Dove might not be at the top of the leaderboard for their class, but he wasn't at the bottom.

Making his way to the top, Jaune smiled when his friends welcomed him back with praise. It wasn't until he sat down that he felt true relief for what he accomplished, though little in the eyes of some, it was grand in his eyes.

"Sasuke and Mercury Black," Glynda called out, adjusting her glasses as they threatened to fall off her face. The two glanced at one another and simply jumped to the floor where both looked to the other with an arched brow. Glynda brought up their aura gauges and the two took their fighting stances.

"No last name?" Mercury asked the former Uchiha.

"No," he replied calmly.

Mercury snickered. "Must suck then, huh? Having no family name, I mean. You know, aside from missing one eye."

Sasuke Sharingan sprang to life and the teen blinked as he felt a great dread hit him hard. He stuffed those feeling deep down and smiled as the match was called and the former Uchiha sprang into action.

Mercury surged forward and met him with a hard kick to the head. The former Uchiha ducked under it and spun low with a leg out to knock him down and evade the kick that just barely ruffled his hair while his kick took out Mercury's leg. The silver haired youth flipped as his leg was kicked out from under him, landed on his hands and sprang away. He flipped as the former Uchiha sprang to his feet and rushed him. Tucking his feet together and then shooting them out, Mercury released twin shots from his shotgun greaves and caught him in the chest and knocked him back.

Mercury grinned as the raven-haired youth stood his ground with his arms covered after taking the blast that should have knocked him down.

Sharingan spinning wildly, the Sharingan user stared down the teen in front of him in wonder. _His aura stops just short of his knees? Why is that? Can he block it? No. No one can do that back home. So then why…?_ His single eye narrowed and a smirk crossed his face. _Interesting… I guess Weiss wasn't joking about their technology._

Mercury rushed forward, jumped, spun, and lashed out with three rapid spin kicks that Sasuke narrowly avoided. He lashed out with a fist and caught Mercury's kick that was aimed at his side with the other hand. Mercury took his punch and reeled from the force behind the blow. Growling, he fired off a round from his captured leg and freed himself from the former Shinobi. Sasuke grimaced as his hand burned from the discharge and hastily covered it in a thin layer of ice.

A second shot rang out and the former Uchiha stared down the teen as he flew at him and lowered himself to meet him. Mercury shot over him and grimaced when he felt a powerful force grab him and yank him down in to the ground hard. The force behind it was enough to make him see white lights in the corners of his eyes as he was sure that might have nearly given him a concussion were it not for the aura that surrounded him.

Sasuke wasn't done and jumped forward after he hit the ground, holding tight to his leg and pulling it with him, resulting in a loud pop that echoed around him as the former Konoha Nin rolled from his landing and sprang to his feet. Mercury was already back on his feet and whatever damage might have or should have been done was not visible. Sasuke blinked as he was certain that should have popped his leg out of place at the hip. 

_That should have done something, but if he's that flexible…?_ Sasuke didn't dare finish that line of thinking.

Mercury rushed him and began delivering a flurry of kicks that forced him back until he was forced to jumped over him and kicked him square in the back with one of his own powerful blows. Staggering forward, the youth ran forward and then proceeded to run up the wall a few feet before jumping off with a powerful blast from both feet that put him behind the former Uchiha. Sasuke followed him in the air and when he landed he was back on him in an instant.

The two returned to their fighting but Sasuke managed to hold his ground and keep the fighting at his pace as he forced the kicker into a fist fight that he obviously didn't want to fight. Finally growling tired of Sasuke's closeness, Mercury threw a punch that forced him to go by the former Uchiha, spun, and kicked him in the side of the head that forced the former Shinobi to spin from the blow. Mercury turned just in time to see that his attack was now being directed back at him in the form of the raven-haired teens' momentum from his kick as he returned the move back to him and forced him back.

Sasuke dropped back into his fighting stance and waited for the teen to come at him. His Sharingan spun angrily as he waited to see what his next move would be. Mercury rushed him and flipped in the air. Aura was transferred to his knees and from there, Sasuke had no idea what his plan was. His legs shot out and one caught him in the chest while the other lashed out and got him across the face, sending him spinning to the ground. Getting to his feet, he punched Mercury in the side and got grabbed in a headlock for his troubles and received an elbow to the back before kicked twice in the face and thrown away.

Rolling along the ground and jumping to his feet, the former Uchiha took a calming breath as his eye stopped spinning and focused more intently on the fighter in front of him.

Mercury gave him a cocky grin as he watched the former Uchiha slowly regain his composure and then slide into a strange stance. He stood ramrod straight with one arm behind his back and the other presented in front palm up. Sasuke smiled and made a "come hither" gesture towards him.

Left eye twitching, Mercury took his stance again and waited. Sasuke smirked and rushed him with a fist pulled back. Mercury lashed out with a kick and raised one arm to catch his fist. Sasuke evaded the kick and let his fist fly into his waiting hand. Mercury grinned as he held on tight and lowered his leg to get ready and hammer him a few times with his other one when he noticed the grin grow on Sasuke.

His foot turned inwards and before Mercury's eyes he vanished from sight.

Mercury's own surprise at the sheer feat he'd just witnessed momentarily forced his guard down as the former Uchiha got behind him and threw a powerful punch that caught him in the side of his face and sent him careening along the ground and rolling away. Sasuke took his stance again as Mercury got to his feet and rubbed the side of his face where the fist had struck him.

"Come," Sasuke ordered, a large grin on his face.

Mercury snorted but seemed impressed regardless as he took his fighting stance again. Seeing that his opponent was coming to him, Sasuke came to him and rushed him with a speed that Mercury could hardly follow. Twisting and lashing out with a hard kick, the former Uchiha ducked to the right of his leg, crouched down low, appeared behind him, closed the distance and kicked him hard in the chest to send him flying.

"What's the matter, Mercury? Is that all you got?" Sasuke taunted. He felt something strange in the teen. A competitive nature? No. It was something else. He rushed Mercury as the teen got to his feet and stopped a few feet away from him to begin running around him and force the teen to try and follow him as he dropped a smoke bomb on the ground distorted his opponents' vision. As the cloud of smoke vanished Mercury finally caught sight of the raven-haired youth rushing him with a few flips before he lashed out with a high kick that Mercury barely avoided before Sasuke flipped up and grabbed his shirt to pull him down into a rising knee bash that caught him in the chest and sent him backwards.

Taking a few steps back, the former Uchiha looked over at the gray-haired teen. It was a moment later that he was back on his feet with a cocky grin on his face. "Is that all you got?" he asked in a taunting tone. Sasuke scowled and glanced up at their aura levels. They were even, despite the damage they had both taken. Mercury rushed him and the former Uchiha grimaced as the teen kicked him hard in the chest. Sasuke stood his ground and caught his second kicked. Mercury grinned and fired his weapon at point black into Sasuke's chest and knocked him back and down. Switching legs, Mercury followed up and kicked and fired shot after shot until Sasuke was completely obscured by the smoke.

"You alive over there?" he taunted as he glanced up at the aura gauges. Sasuke's gauge hadn't fallen any even from that beating? He turned back to the smoke and grimaced as he saw a dome of ice covered the spot where Sasuke had been. Shards of ice littered the ground where he had fallen from the initial shot along with bits of his shirt. Grunting, he started firing again in an attempt to shattered the ice dome.

Sasuke huffed from inside his protective cover and held his shoulder where the Curse Seal resided, pulsing and burning as it attempted to boost his power. He glanced down his left arm and saw the black markings forcing their way down before he willed them away. He could hear the ice cracking and a desire to subdue his seal before he rushed back out to fight that man forced his hand.

Taking a calming breath, he shut his eye and searched deep within himself to call upon the strength to force the seal back. A moment later he felt the seal stop burning and recede back within its confines before.

 _I can't do that again. That drains my stamina too much and forces the seal to become active._ He sighed and caught his breath before thinning the ice behind him and slipping out. He flipped through some seals before taking a deep breath and shattered the ice. Mercury never saw it coming. A torrent of flames left Sasuke's mouth and shoved what ice refused to melt outwards like a highspeed projectile that slammed into him with minimal force but their numbers and the heat that followed was enough to drain his aura to just before the red.

Grinning, Sasuke narrowed his eye on the teen before he saw something falling right in front of him. A teardrop the size of a small ball hit the ground and detonated in a flash of thunder. Then another hit behind him, followed by another and then a few dozen more before he felt his entire world explode into pain. A quick substitution with a clone place a few feet away from him was enough to pull him out and avoid any further damage to his aura. He checked it saw that both of them were borderline in the red.

Mercury slowly got to his feet and growled as he stared at the panting former member of Team Seven. _How he on his feet? That should have removed his aura entirely!_ Mercury swore internally before he glanced up at the stands where Emerald and Cinder were watching with wide eyes. As was everyone else. Strange that the match wasn't being called yet…

 _Huh?_ Sasuke disappeared in front of him and reappeared directly in front of him with a rising high kick that propelled him into the air. He flipped over, landed on all fours and jumped up to follow him from behind and put two fingers in his back. Mercury twisted when he felt Sasuke grab his right side to spin him into a kick that he blocked with his forearm. Sasuke spun in the air and Mercury prepared for a kick from the other side only to get blindsided from the same side as the first kick with a backhand that forced him into a headfirst decent.

"Come back here!" Sasuke ordered as he flipped in the air during their decent and outstretched a leg that caught him in the chest as they both hit the ground. The force of the kick him hitting the ground was enough to reduce his aura to nothing.

"This match is over."

The two teens glanced at Glynda and obeyed without question. Mercury grimaced and glanced in the direction of his two teammates before shrugging.

"Sasuke, you did well. A good display of keeping your opponent on their toes and always forcing him to adapt to your every changing combat style. Mercury, you focus and devotion to a singular style prevented you for being able to adapt to Sasuke's changing combat style. Though, one cannot fault you for not being fast enough to handle the sudden increase in speed that your opponent showed, nor his creativity with his abilities." Glynda then checked off the winner on her scroll and called for the next match as Sasuke walked to the locker room to change his shirt so he was decent for class. Sun could get away with it, but he wasn't Sun.

He checked the Curse Seal on his shoulder and saw that it was red, most likely from him holding it as tightly as he did during his confrontation with it inside his ice shelter. He gently touched it and for a moment saw it pulse as if it were going to flare up again. _Could Naruto do the Evil Sealing Method on this thing? I doubt it, but it'd be nice to have it reinforced. If not for my sake, then everyone else's._ He shut his eye and then made his way back up to the others where Pyrrha was finishing her match with Russel and Sky. The duo just couldn't beat her two on one. If they had one more, maybe Dove, they could have pulled it off.

Class was over and Sasuke sighed as he and the rest of his team made their way to their dorm to get their homework done. Curse Oobleck and his history lessons. They weren't even finished getting things set up to start their homework before a knock came at the door.

"I got it," Emert said, sounding very happy as he shut off his scroll to answer the door. Naruto stood in the door with a knowing grin on his face. "Sup, Naruto? You need Sasuke?"

"He got homework?"

"Of course," Jasper said with a displeased look on his face. Persia said nothing, instead opting to continue her work. She had most of it done while the fights were taking place. She didn't pay nearly as much attention as she should have during the events. Neither was Blake for that matter. "You knew, didn't you?"

"Probably." Naruto poked his head in and spied his former teammate sitting at his desk, pen in hand, scowl on his face, and a textbook open. "I'll talk to you tomorrow. I can take care of what I need to get done on my own. Don't worry man."

"You sure?"

Naruto thought about it, glanced down the hall, then shrugged. "It wouldn't hurt to have some help, but hey, I'll manage." He waved goodbye and opted to check out another one of his friends to see if they'd be able to help. He knocked on the door and smiled when the bubble girl with orange hair answered. "Hey, Nora! You guys got your homework done yet?"

At this, she sighed and shook her head. "No. Unlike some of us, I was paying attention to the fights. Did you know Sasuke could move really fast on command?"

Arching a brow, Naruto wondered if Naruto forgot about their fight or that she had been present for some of their training? But then again, they weren't fighting as tough as they usually did anymore and most of their training sessions now were revolving around chakra theories and jutsu training.

"How fast was he moving?"

"He was disappearing and reappearing like he was teleporting, but Pyrrha says she could see his movement. Ruby could too. It was strange to see him disappear and reappear as quickly as he did," Jaune confessed as he looked up from his desk. He shut a book and stood up. "And to answer your previous question: I did finish my homework because I was working on during class like he gave us time to do and then during lunch before heading to Glynda's class."

"If Professor Glynda were to learn of this she wouldn't be very happy." Jaune looked worried while Pyrrha looked on with a smile to the mischievous blond. "Thank God I'm not someone that likes ratting people out. Oh well. She'll just have to find out on her own if she doesn't already know. I bet she does and she just didn't care to say anything."

"I'm sure that if she did, she would have said something to us," Pyrrha pointed out helpfully. Naruto snapped his fingers and nodded. "What are you doing today, Naruto?"

"Well I'm about to go to town to pick out some new clothes or just look around. Wanted to see if anyone wanted to go, but I guess since two of you have homework, that'd be a bit rude to split the team up since I imagine you're all going to help each other?"

"If the two of you want to go," Ren spoke up quietly with a small cough before he spoke, "Nora and I can handle this on our own." When Nora looked ready to protest, Ren added, "And it'll give me a reason to make pancakes and not worry about Nora eating them all before you guys get back. Get something while you're out."

And whatever words of revolt were going to come from Nora were silenced as she started happily working on her homework. Pyrrha glanced in Jaune's direction saw him look over the teachers' assistant before smiling. "We'll go," Pyrrha chimed in, grabbing Jaune's hand and hauling him off before he could protest. Naruto watched the interaction curiously before shrugging and following after them.

(-)

Pyrrha gave Jaune some space as he spent his time speaking with his fellow blond. Jaune was mostly curious as to his fighting style and his way of thinking when it came to combat. He really wanted to know how to be creative when it came to combat just like how Naruto supposedly was. For what few times he'd seen his fellow blond fight, they were brute force fights where he utilized superior strength and speed in his fights.

"…then they made me their King," Naruto said with a grin as he finished telling a funny story about his travels with Jiraiya on their hunt for Tsunade.

"Really?" Jaune asked, stars in his eyes.

"Oh God no!" Naruto said with a laugh. Jaune deflated but didn't seem all that hurt by it. It was worth the laugh it seemed. "Have you guys been around this part of town?"

"Not really," Pyrrha confessed. Naruto put his hands on his head and shrugged. Jaune pulled out his scroll and started looking for something that was close by for them to get something to eat. Naruto came a stop in front of an old store and smiled as he checked his scroll to make sure this was the one he wanted before putting the device away and stepping in. Pyrrha read the name of the store and blinked. "The Beginning? Odd name for a store."

She followed her partner and friend inside.

The entire store was not what she had expected and apparently Jaune was the same. An old man was behind the counter with a pair of glasses while an equally old woman was off to the side drawing on a sketchpad that she was busying herself with. The store was broken up into two sections with clothes and armor for respective genders on either side with a display of an assortment of masks in the center as if to bring both sides together.

"How can I help you three today?" the old man asked.

"I'm looking to get something custom made," Naruto told him as he stepped forward.

"That doesn't seem that hard. What did you have in mind, young lad?"

Naruto scratched at his cheek in embarrassment. "I was hoping I'd get inspired by something in here to be honest. Maybe find a mix set or something. I'm trying to get stuff together for my jobs I take from Ozpin since most of them involve combat with Grimm."

"Ah… A Huntsman. Well armor would be the main thing you want but designing it and finding the quality of the metal will be up to you. Metal prices are always so changing. But whatever price they're at right now, we'll lock 'em in and you only pay that price."

"Thank you."

Naruto bowed and started looking around with Jaune. If Coco were here she could help pick out something. He already had an idea on what he wanted, it was just talking about the design was hard for him. Emotions he could do easily. He knew that. Talking about how something looked and describing it someone else was very hard. He remembered one-time Iruka wanted them to describe a snowman in eight paragraphs without starting each paragraph with the same word from before. He didn't pass that one. In fact, he was pretty sure he wasn't the only one to fail it. Why did that even apply to being a Shinobi? Was it just to teach them how to write and not look like an idiot? That was dumb if it was.

Naruto found a few things in red that he liked, but they were simple clothing and not much in the way of armor. He knew it could be added, but his father was telling him to get something that had it already on it or was built into it under the cloth. His mom was agreeing, but she was ultimately more interested in something else. Whatever she was interested in, Naruto wasn't paying attention and didn't care either. In fact, he was pretty sure she was trying to come to terms with this world even more. The use of scroll was enough to keep her asking for more information about something he didn't really know how to work all too well. Sasuke knew it though. That was enough for him.

Sighing, he turned to Pyrrha as she walked out of a changing booth wearing a pair of blue jean shorts and a red spaghetti strap shirt. She called out to Jaune and the Arc gave her a thumbs' up before turning to his task at hand. Pyrrha glanced in Naruto's direction and then back to Jaune.

" _She's in to him."_ Naruto heard his parents say in unison. Naruto scratched his nose and returned to his task at hand. _"She's is rather cute. Almost looks like you when we were younger, Kushina."_

" _Not curvy enough, honey. Sorry. Ain't me."_

Naruto massaged his temple as his parents started arguing over whether or not Pyrrha resembled Naruto's mother in her youth. "Jaune," Naruto whispered as Pyrrha disappeared back to the changing booth to put on her normal/combat clothes, "I know I'm blind to a lot of things. Like, really blind. But has she always been this… overly friendly to you?"

"Who? Pyrrha? Yeah. She usually even helps me find my hoodies when they go missing. Shame that she left some of her unmentionables in the bathroom yesterday after our workout. I let her use the shower first. Guess she was really tired if she did that." Jaune pulled out a black hoodie that had some armor padding on the inside of the sleeves and back. "Why?"

" _He's worse than you, Minato!"_

" _You mean he's worse than you, Kushina."_

Naruto gave him a dead stare before answering with, "No reason," as he turned and saw the masks. Well, if clothes were out of the option for the time being until Coco got back, he might as well have some fun just looking around the store for something. Maybe he could find some ideas and message them to her? No. That'd give her more time to plan stuff out. Or that'd be a good thing and he'd spend less time as her dress-up doll? He wasn't sure which one was better since both still had him doing the same action just over different periods of time.

"Naruto," Jaune moved forward and put the hoodie on the counter after telling the man he'd pay for it and just wanted to keep looking around. "What was your home like? I mean your village? Sasuke hardly talks about it. And what few things he does mention always involve you."

Naruto picked up a mask that resembled a dog. He rubbed his thumb over the jaw and shook his head as he put it back. "I'm sure whatever Sasuke told you was true about our village."

"Is it true you once painted a monument in broad daylight with hundreds of others Huntsmen being unaware of it?"

Naruto started laughing. He looked down at the mask. "Yeah. That one is true. I did that and would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for Iruka. He was the only one to ever catch me. I even followed our leaders' personal warriors that acted as his guards. I mean, maybe it was just that they didn't care and had other things to do, but they never found me doing these things."

"Sounds like they might have been rather dumb or blind."

"No." Naruto put the mask back, his fingers tracing the eye-holes. His face darkened. "They weren't dumb or blind. If they were anything, they were near the best of the best. They were handpicked warriors from all ages and fields. If one of them gave you an order, you obeyed without question." He pulled his fingers back and looked at the rest of the masks. "They wore specially designed animal masks and used a codename to go along with it. There was a time I wanted to be just like them. I thought they were the best. Then I learned that if I wanted to prove I was the best I had to be the leader of our village."

"What did the animals represent?" Pyrrha asked as she stepped out holding her clothes she had tried on. She intended to get them. She'd find a use for them somewhere down the road. Maybe a date with Jaune? She had to get him to notice her first. She didn't want to make the first move. She didn't know how. Too shy and with Naruto here it was going to be impossible for her to even ask Jaune out on a proper date. She'd rather have him do it. Yes, she was a hopeless romantic. So, sue her if she didn't like that stuff.

"I don't remember much about that part. If I had to guess, it was probably a stature to who they were or what they could do. Like a Wolf mask might mean that the person was a capable leader and a lone wolf type for combat. We had a Bear mask that might have represented being a warrior of true strength. There was a mask for every animal. So maybe that was why they were designed like that."

"If you were chosen, I guess you'd be a mischievous Fox," Pyrrha pointed out helpfully. Naruto rolled his eyes. "They're intelligent being and have paranormal abilities that increase with their age and wisdom. While some folklore often speaks of them as tricksters and shapeshifters, there are more stories about them being faithful guardians, friends, lovers, and wives." 

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Well, I'll say I'm some of that, but I'm not a woman, so I can't be a wife."

"Don't you have the ability to turn into a woman thanks to shapeshifting though?" Jaune pointed out. Naruto gave him a dead stare, causing the Arc boy to stop talking and return to what he was doing.

"Be that as it may, I was never that smart, so that rules that one out as well. Paranormal abilities however," he trailed off and thought more on that one for this world rather than his own. Anything he did here could be explained there. But nothing he did there could be explained there. He could move fast, shapeshift, make copies of himself, utilize chakra in the form of a powerful attack, summon the chakra of the Kyuubi, who was a fox, and had tremendous strength as a result of both his training and the Kyuubi. "Even then, I doubt anyone would like one if they saw one here. They're being of destruction and disaster." He touched the mask one last time and suppressed a shudder as he heard Kyuubi cackle softly in the back of his mind. "Just a swing of one of their mighty nine-tails can raze mountains and summon tsunamis. A single roar can blow away entire villages. That kind of power doesn't need to exist."

Pyrrha put a hand on his shoulder and caused him to raise his gaze to meet hers'. "Perhaps not, but the rest is spot on for you. You are a proud warrior who defends his friends. A stern and powerful guardian to his friends, a trickster, a shapeshifter, and a person with paranormal powers. I don't think Sasuke was wrong in anything he ever said about you, Naruto."

"Yeah," Jaune added as he stepped up to the other side of his fellow blond. "You are a cool dude. And I'm happy to meet you. And given how you saved our butts when you woke up in the hospital during that Grimm attack, I think it even shows that you are everything that embodies a fox. Maybe your mask would have been one… You know… If you wanted one or got to join them."

Naruto pulled his hand away from the mask, an idea forming in his head. "Maybe… But I doubt it." He walked up to the counter. "I think I have an idea on what I want, but I'm not familiar with most metals."

"That's not a problem. Your friends look like they might have an idea on it." He looked to the woman. "You catch any of that?" She nodded mutely as she was busy with the sketchpad. "It'll take us a while to make it. How about you let us make the design. What kind of weapon do you use and we can work around that. Also, we need a color too."

Naruto shut his eyes and smiled. "Red and Black. I use a sword, knives, and shuriken." He looked the man over and then reached for his money only to have a hand put on his shoulder by the old man.

"The first piece will be done in a week. You were the one in the red aura, right? When the Grimm got into the city and the news went nuts with some kid that looked like you tearing them apart?" Naruto nodded slowly and fearfully. The man smiled. "You saved my grandkid in that. I think that deserves at least some level of a thank you."

"Can I get one piece for free?" Naruto told him with a big grin. The man shook his head and Naruto pretended to be hurt by his words. "Darn it."

Laughing, the old man walked around the corner and motioned to a room in the back. "As much as I'd like to for you saving my grandkid, I can't. A little hard to come by when you're out in these cheap areas. Right this way and we'll get you measured up." Naruto nodded and followed him into the back to get measured up for his clothing.


	27. The Second Dance in the Step

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N

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Chapter 26

"His eye changed as soon as the fight started and throughout the entire match he seemed to be able to predict my movements." Mercury flipped the page in his comic. If it wasn't for the fact that they were worried the place was bugged with cameras only, he'd have been sitting up and relaying this information directly to her. Thank God Cinder wasn't worried about mics in the room, otherwise they'd be pretty dumb right now.

"Is that even possible?" Emerald asked. She looked away from her scroll and to Cinder as the young woman suddenly stopped her work, whatever it was she was doing, and gave the male teen a strange look. "Was he predicting the future or something?"

"If that was the case, I wouldn't have been able to hit him. And I don't think that's what he was doing. He seemed to have issues detecting anything from the knee down, meaning prosthetics don't work that eye of his." He sat the comic down and sat up, his eyes hardened as he opened his mouth and shut it a few times before finally getting out, "And that speed of his, along with the ice and fire abilities as well. Having two elemental types, an eye with the ability to, for all intense and purpose, see the future, along with high speed just isn't normal. You think he's…" Mercury let it hang there.

"Well," Cinder sat down her needle and thread. "It's not out of the realm of possibility. But they telegraph such power? He didn't show up until after the Grimm attack nearly a year ago here in Vale. It was right after a big battle broke out between two people. All information was scrubbed and anyone that might know about it is going to be very hard to track down. But his records say he's a prodigy and someone with exceptional talent for aura manipulation."

"Aura manipulation?" Emerald repeated quietly. "Is it possible he's just using Dust and us not seeing it?"

Cinder put a hand to her chin in thought. "There's no way he would have been able to do it without us seeing him do it. And even if he was using Dust as a means to use those abilities, he'd be running the risk of it blowing up in his face. No. I think his power comes from being a pure Elemental-type."

"But that's only limited to one element," Mercury pointed out.

"There are a great many Semblances out there. Who's to say Ozpin hasn't found someone that can utilize all of them and just needs some proper training to further hone his skill with it. Ice and Fire types aren't that rare, but it is rare to have two of them at the same time, let alone an eye that seems to read your movements." Cinder's scroll began to vibrate and with great reluctance she answered it. "Hello, Sweetie. How are you doing?"

 _"We may have an allegiance, but I wouldn't go so far as to say something such as that to me."_

Cinder rolled her eyes, thankful he wasn't here to see her do it as she said, "Do forgive me. I'm trying to remain hidden in a school full of a powerful students and teachers, _Sweetie_. I do hope you understand."

 _"I understand, but I don't like it."_

Cinder rubbed the bridge of her nose as she cut to the chase. "How are your preparations going?"

 _"We're a little behind schedule. One of our bases lost two of their members to a Grimm attack a few days ago."_ Cinder couldn't see his men being that stupid that they'd go out without a weapon in hand, but then again, people, Faunus included, were stupid. _"We think they were out checking a craft that had come through the area a few days ago."_

"Could it have been a recon team?"

 _"Possible, but unless they were Faunus operatives, they shouldn't have even managed to sneak in. All known entry points were heavily guarded. But that's beside the point. We need a bit longer before we can start up our operation. We need a location to setup the trap."_

"I can think of a few spots that are out of the way unless you want to make this a public spectacle."

 _"The Humans and Faunus look to him as some sort of hero. I'd rather have them not see him fall."_

"I doubt they see him as such," Cinder informed him, her eyes lighting up with annoyance. "What he is, is nothing more than a small bump in the road. A powerful fighter he may be, but he is nothing but a mindless warrior if the two instances he's appeared are to be of any indication to his combat ability."

 _"And his closeness to Blake?"_

That was why he was doing this. Because he was still holding a flame for the female Faunus that betrayed him. Cute, but stupid. And even if this wasn't just about his closeness to Blake, there was obviously the threat to their plans. Adam wanted Haven destroyed, Cinder needed Beacon destroyed, and this was their mutually shared goal. However, adding in Sasuke and the red aura Faunus/Human warrior to the mix didn't exactly complicate things, it just made them a little mixed. Both were unknowns with varying powers and abilities. For what little she could gather, the unknown Human/Faunus seemed to be able to have accesses to a multitude of abilities that range from shapeshifting to full on invulnerability thanks in part to that red aura he gained.

But now there was Sasuke, someone who seemed to have a multiple Semblances. Was it possible to have that many? Cinder doubted it very much that someone could be in possession of two Semblances, but how else could anyone explain Sasuke, and to a great extent, the Human/Faunus warriors' abilities. They had to be stopped, even if it meant only stopping one of them.

"They hang out regularly. She spends a lot of time in his room… alone." The joy of torture. She could see it now. Adam was most likely seething at that little piece of information. A brutal beast he might be, but a jealous ex-boyfriend he most certainly was. "I'll keep an eye on them for you until your plans are set in stone. When that happens, do tell me and I'll see what I can do to arrange a meeting between the two of you."

 _"Please do. In the meantime, please do something about Roman. His methods, while effective, aren't exactly leaving any lasting impressions with those that work with him that are a part of **my** group. Please keep him on a tighter leash, or you just might find him put down like a mutt he is."_

"I'll speak with him." She hung up and sighed. "Idiot. If he thinks killing one boy and taking back his girlfriend is going to make things better for him, he's got another thing coming."

"Isn't he older than her?" Emerald asked, a brow raised in confusion to the matter.

"Age doesn't really matter at times," Mercury pointed out, a grin as he did. "Besides, they're terrorists. With all the crimes they're committing, why not add that on their list as well?"

While Mercury and Emerald argued over their view points on the subject, Cinder thought more on the operation to kill Naruto, the unknown Human/Faunus type. If he was considered a hero to the people of Vale for his actions in stopping both the White Fang operation and the Grimm attack, then taking him down now might cause a backlash in the Grimm. Too much negative emotion before their plans could be put into place might weaken their numbers and potentially half their fighting strength for the day of the attack. If they could take him out without anyone noticing, then perhaps they could bolster the ranks of the White Fang as a result.

 _I should speak with Salem about pulling back the Grimm just in case this goes out of control._

(-)

Yang stared at Sasuke as the teen sat in a meditative stance with his single eye closed. Every so often Pyrrha would pace around him, stop moving, raise a hand, and then brain him with a light tap from the back of her hand across his head. This was because he wasn't focusing and she knew it. Same with Jaune. He'd shake his head and sigh when he caught sight of Sasuke losing focus and then receiving a whack for doing so. It was his own fault. He made a simple mistake in saying that sometimes the best way to learn something was through pain.

Yeah… He dug his own grave with this one.

"I guess I fail to see how this helps him gain control over his Semblance," Yang confessed in boredom. Sasuke was going to get hit by Pyrrha during training? Sign her up to watch it. But this wasn't what she was expecting. She was expecting him creating his ice armor like he did before with his fight against Mercury, but instead he was sitting and just trying to focus on something. When he didn't or he began to slip in his focus, Pyrrha knocked him one. "The comedic value of watching Sasuke get hit at random is sort of dying now."

"What would you rather be doing?" Jaune asked her. Yang shrugged. She honestly didn't know what she'd rather be doing at this very moment? Maybe she should start working with Weiss on the party that was coming up? "You should consider a hobby then," Jaune pointed out to her.

"I have a hobby."

"Training and making puns doesn't count." Yang turned away, unhappy at being put down so easily. "Driving your bike could be a hobby. I think it is one. Not sure about that. Driving is always seen as a hobby, but I just can't see how it is. Maybe that's just me."

"Probably is."

Jaune decided to keep quiet on that since it was a subject of debate and he didn't feel like losing another debate today. Losing a debate with Nora on the matter of pancakes and why they're not food for all times of the day. How anyone could survive eating just one type of food as long as Nora has been beyond him. Maybe that was what made her so strange?

Pyrrha suddenly hissed in pain and Jaune's eyes quickly snapped to the redhead as she held her hand and stared at a few pale pieces of flesh that had been subjected to something very cold. Jaune and Yang both leaned forward to examine the two before noticing tiny cracks forming along Sasuke's cheek where she had clearly decked him one. They spread out quickly before his entire body froze over and shattered, leaving a panting one-eyed student in the center still sitting.

"Lasted a little bit longer than I expected," he confessed. Yang opened her mouth but Jaune was quick to cover it, his eyes narrowed still on Pyrrha's pale hand. "Not as long as I would have liked, but it was enough to get by and get a good start on. How visible was it?"

"Not visible at all," Pyrrha told him as she shook the numbness from her hand. It'd return in a few minutes. "I'm a little surprised that you managed to do that as well as you did with so little time to train for it. Unless you've been training behind my back."

Sasuke released a small chuckle as he shook his head. "You're still my master when it comes to this stuff. But I have been speaking with Weiss about the nature of a Semblance like mine, along with doing my own research on it. I want to be able to have a firm grasp of this so that I know what I can and can't do with it. That takes too much out of me to make it as clear as it was and while I could do it this time, I don't think it's a good idea to make as clear as I did if it's so taxing on my aura. Besides, it was just an idea."

"Maybe you just need better control?" Yang told him, a small smile on her face. There was a pun there and she was damn happy she got it out.

"That's not really much of a problem for him," Pyrrha confessed, and if the very well-hidden scowl on her face was anything to go by, she meant it. "It just seems to come easier for him. Almost like he knows what he's doing with his aura better than anyone I knew from my tournament days."

"I was getting Professor Glynda's help long before this kicked in," Sasuke confessed, though that might not help his case if she knew that he was only as good as he was because he'd spent years beforehand learning how to control his Chakra prior to getting aura. The two were vastly different, but the idea behind it was still the same. God forbid the day Naruto gets aura in his system. That many energies floating around in his body might not be the best thing for someone such as him.

"Why were you getting help from her?"

Sasuke blinked and for a moment opened his mouth to tell them that he didn't know anything about Aura or that she was the one that had transferred some of her Aura into him to unlock his and begin the cycle of him converting all of his chakra into Aura. If that wasn't done, it'd be harder for him at their school then it already was. Adding in Naruto to that every growing concoction of problems wasn't exactly making things any easier. Even with Blake knowing the truth, things still seemed rather hard for both of them.

"Well he did come in with little to no Aura training or control over his Semblance, Yang." Pyrrha crossed her arms as she walked around the former Uchiha and sized him up. She couldn't place it, but there had always been something odd about that. How **did** he even get in to the academy if he couldn't control or even use his Semblance prior to this? If his Semblance simply evolved then she could understand why it was the case, but he had always dodged any real form of an answer when the question of his Semblance was presented. "A few extra lessons from a professor never hurts either."

Yang shrugged and started walking away only to stop and turn back to Sasuke with a pointed look. "How come Naruto hasn't been training with you anymore? I thought that was your thing?"

"He's been preoccupied with trying to sort some things out with his life right now."

"Like what?"

Sasuke licked his lips and shut his eye. Just off the top of his head he could think of about eight different things, but each and every one of those things was something he couldn't talk about, wouldn't talk about, or simply didn't care to talk about with any of them.

"He's trying to find himself," he finally settled on. "Besides, it's his journey and his story to tell. I'm sure if you ask him, he'll tell you. I'm just going to warn you that whatever he tells you, you should take it with a grain of salt."

Yang rolled her eyes. "Fine. But just keep an eye on him. He's been spending a lot of time with Blake. I'm worried about the two of them. Blake is being… well… Blakey. I just don't want to see him get hurt."

"…No. No, we don't." Sasuke shut his eye again and felt a cold chill pass through his body.

(-)

"Orochimaru might have been a terrible person, but he was damn good at making seals of his own. I'll give him that much, at least."

Sasuke sat in the chambers of Naruto's mind shirtless while Minato, arguable the now strangest Hokage he'd ever officially laid eyes on, which wasn't saying much when one considered that he'd only ever seen three to begin with, studied the seal on his shoulder. Kushina chewed on her lip the entire time as she too studied the strange seal. Naruto remained off to the side, hands in his pockets and his eyes fiercely locked on the object as well.

"And you're saying that it only activated recently?"

"Yes."

"Strange…" Minato went back to his work on studying the seal.

Sasuke looked up to his blond friend with a look of worry. Naruto didn't like the idea of Sasuke's seal running rampant on him. Their fight at the Valley of the End was certainly a deciding factor in this thought process, but his mind hadn't been damaged during the fight. He was damaged long before he got the seal. He knew that. Accepted it, even. But getting the seal, coming here, fighting Naruto and then seeing with one good eye after losing the other and getting his brains nearly turned to pulp snapped him out of his delusions long enough for logic to set in. The seal had never played a part in his mental state until he got it and even then, he never fully gave his will to it. He desired power. It gave it to him to beat his enemies. Nothing more. Nothing less.

But on the subject of seals, Sasuke couldn't help but look behind his former teammate and stare directly at the bigger, eviler, and less forgiving seal that held an unspeakably powerful, evil, unhappy, and large monster of power: Kyuubi.

What were they going to do about it?

One such idea, cleverly brought up by his mother, was for Naruto fight said beast and take control of his power to better save this world and hope that upon his death, after having kids, getting married, and dying of old age – Like that would ever happen for him! – Naruto would somehow have drained Kyuubi dry of all his power and he was subsequently die as a result and never come back.

On a scale of one to stupid, Sasuke rated that plan as asinine. The reasons for why this was such was fairly obviously with the real glaring one being that it was impossible to kill. Also backed up by Minato and the Kyuubi. Both of which were delated to inform the redhead that any attempts to "drain him dry" would be impossible as he was a limitless source of power as the legend and Kyuubi himself seemed claim. Limitless didn't mean much to Sasuke and Naruto seemed to think along the same lines as his mother in thinking that he had a limit. Maybe he did. Maybe he didn't. But if Naruto was going to try that, Sasuke felt obligated to ask him to drink all the water in the world while he was at. Salt water included, obviously, because he'd be doing the exact same thing here: Fighting an utterly hopeless and pointless battle against something that neither cared nor could be stopped from replenishing itself.

"What's strange about it?"

Minato ignored Sasuke for a few minutes before standing up and finally answering him. "The seal isn't so much a seal anymore. It's something else. It's not a living thing, but it acts like a living thing. I'd need more time to study it, which I feel I don't have. This already puts tremendous strain on Naruto's body and mind having all of us in here. I don't want to put him through any further strain than what he already is."

"What about the Evil Sealing Method? Would that do anything to it?"

The former Hokage bit his lower lip. "it could be. But the seal is different now. It's not how it was. It's not alive, but it acts like a living thing. Chances are that it reverted to its true nature of being an infection. But with my limited knowledge on such things…" He let it hang there.

Sasuke nodded. He knew what that meant. This was more in the culprits' field than Minato's. They'd have to find and bribe someone to do something about this. But even then, how would they explain this away?

Sighing, he cracked his neck and felt a moment of joy when he saw Naruto begin having the array for Evil Sealing Method explained to him. Sasuke wasn't going to hope Naruto could get this down by the end of the night. That'd be way too much of a stretch for him with how complicated it seemed to have been when he watched Kakashi doing to him. The entire thing was beyond his level of understanding and it was clearly beyond Naruto's.

If this thing could be removed…

"This is enough for the day," Minato wave a hand as if he was waving goodbye to them, which he might have been.

Sasuke blinked and he was back in his room, his single eye burning from dryness as he snapped back to reality. Naruto didn't stir immediately, but Sasuke knew he was fine.

"So," Jasper began, fully awakening his team leader, "You guys have a blinking contest or what? That looked rather strange."

The former Uchiha rolled his eye. How could explain to them that he was speaking with Naruto and his family inside his mind via ocular telepathy with his Sharingan?

"He was speaking to him in Naruto's mind," Emert said softly.

Sasuke wasn't sure when it happened, but as of lately his male Faunus teammate had grown more attentive to Naruto and his actions. But it was now starting to worry him that Emert was waiting for something to happen. Or maybe Naruto let it slip that they weren't from this world and the male Faunus was simply waiting for Sasuke to come out and say it.

"I'm not a telepath."

Emert winked in reply to mirror Sasuke's one good eye. The former Uchiha stiffened and then got up to go to the bathroom and look at his eye to make sure it wasn't dried out. Once he gave it a full look over and was satisfied that no damage was done from his prolonged use of the Sharingan, he moved back out to the main room where Naruto was coming out of it and holding his head.

"You alright?" Naruto nodded in reply as he got up off the bed and stretched his legs. He wobbled for a moment as his legs hadn't woken up yet and then began moving around to try and get feeling back before sighing and rubbing his eyes. "I thought I lost you in there. Everything okay?"

The blond rubbed his eyes some more while nodding. "Yeah," he answered tiredly with a yawn. "I'm just going to go head to bed. I'll talk to you later." Naruto left before Sasuke could ask him what was wrong, leaving the confused team leader behind with his team.

"He's not okay," Emert confessed. Sasuke gave him a curious look and the wolf Faunus sighed explosively. "Keep an eye on him, Leader." With that said, he stripped and jumped in bed to go to sleep for the day.

Sasuke rubbed his tired eye again and decided that it was best to wait for morning before handling this one. If Naruto was worried about something and not wanting to talk about, going to him now would do him no good. He'd contend with this issue tomorrow.

(-)

Blake rubbed his tired eyes as she looked over the documents she had managed to get on her Scroll. They were detailed plans about an attack, but these attacks were all trivial things that was nothing more than petty theft. Yes, the White Fang was involved and all the stuff stolen was Dust, but these plans were already done and over with. She needed a new lead. Something to tip the edge in her favor for finding these guys and stopping them before things got worse. If she didn't…

She shook her head.

Thinking like that would lead her down a path she didn't want to follow. She was already following one path she didn't like. Why bother starting another that she knew she wouldn't like.

Since it was the weekend she wondered if she could grab up Naruto for another information hunt on the White Fang. He had always been eager to assist her. Maybe she could persuade him to help her again. They might have hit all their targets for the list she had on them, but since they were in a general location to each attack, that meant they had a meeting point somewhere close by. Moving all that dust without stirring up any kind of air traffic responses would be hard. That meant they were transporting it on the ground from jobs in the city. Which meant their base of operation was close by, or, failing that, it was just a storage facility until it could be moved later on.

If the two of them were to head out and attempt to take a shot at finding their base…

Closing her Scroll and walking out of the library, she made a hasty right turn and started heading for Naruto's room. If she could get him to go they could get more information on what the White Fang was going to do next. That would solve so many problems before they became serious ones. That was the lucky break she needed. She needed to get somewhere with this now rather than later. Failure to do so would see her father's work ruined. She wasn't going to have that. Even if he had left that life behind, he didn't need them besmirching his name and his work that he had done to try and help their people.

His door shut before she even got to him and she blinked at the fact he failed to notice her head towards him. With a slight hesitation she knocked on the door and waited a minute before it was opened by a confused looking blond. "You okay, Blake?"

"Yeah," she answered quickly. She put a hand on his chest and gently pushed him back into his room as she entered in after him. He let her in and shut the door. Blake looked around as she continued. "I need your help with something this weekend. Are you free?"

"This weekend?" He shut his eyes hard. Blake could see the gears turning in his head. He was honestly thinking. Did he have plans already? He didn't go anywhere it seemed. What few times he had gone somewhere, Sasuke generally told them well in advanced and it was mostly for school related stuff. Sasuke hadn't mentioned anything to her or the others. And if he had, she sure as hell wasn't paying attention. "I think I'm free. I know I'm needed for a few lessons for those that have detention this weekend, but that's Sunday morning."

"It'd be Saturday night and going into the morning. Another all-nighter for me."

The Jinchuuriki blinked. She realized that she got him with that one. "I think I'm free then. But I'll need to get some sleep in and I have training I have to take care of for something with Sasuke." He sat down on his bed and scratched at the back of his head. With his free hand he started pulling his shirt off and tossed it to the side to a pile that had started to form from the last time she had come over. He hadn't been able to do a lot of his chores around his place due mostly in part to the jobs he'd been taking and then the work he did with Blake. She felt a smidge of guilt for that. "What are we doing?"

"We'd be looking in on a spot for White Fang activity."

Naruto's brow nearly knitted itself together with the look he gave her. For a moment she worried he was going to turn her down and go report her for her planned operation. When he blinked his eyes softened and he nodded slowly. Relief came a moment later for her when he opened up with, "What time are we heading out and where are we starting?"

Blake grinned and started explaining her plan.


End file.
